Nicki – Connect, Respect, Protect
by Thialisi
Summary: Nicholas Taylor is Team One's new team mate. Spike x MaleOC. Designed to be similar to the series, with a hot call in (almost) every chapter and a bit of personal stuff woven around. Rated M for language and sexual suggestions in later chapters.
1. A new teammate

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters (except Nicki). Most ideas are my own, but I borrowed some lines from the series.

I've never been to Toronto (or Canada), and I don't know anything about how the Police works. Also, I'm not a native English speaker. If someone notices any bad mistakes in the logic or the language, I would be grateful for ideas and corrections via PM.

Hope you have fun reading! :)

* * *

**Chapter one – A new teammate  
****Monday, 3rd September****, ****2012**

The alarm clock goes off at five-thirty a.m. as every morning and I slowly stretch out to switch it off. Another day, another chance to make a difference. Especially as today is the day… I suddenly am wide awake with excitement and get out of my bed. I quickly change into my training clothes and go to the kitchen to start the coffee maker. I always turn it on to prepare coffee while I go on my short morning run. I collect my keys and music player from the kitchen counter and set off. It is still dark as I begin my jog. I turn on the music as I run, focusing solely on the sounds that are playing inside my ears, enjoying the cool morning breeze to the full.

I fight with my wavy, medium-length hair to tie it into a ponytail after taking a shower, brushing my teeth and shaving. I need to look good today! I take a quick summary in the mirror and see the muscular body of a thirty-two year old guy with light brown hair, tied up into a ponytail, grey-blue eyes, and clean shaved skin, the summer tan still visible. I smirk and wink at my reflection: It'll do.

* * *

The morning has changed into a beautiful and sunny September morning when I park my bicycle in front of the building, my green backpack carelessly draped over my shoulders and music blasting into my ears. I take a few moments to look up to the building in front of me: the headquarters of the Strategic Response Unit.

"All right, let's go" I tell myself while I begin to ascent the stairs to the building's main entrance. Today is my first day on the new job and I am a little bit nervous because I have no clue what to expect. Of course, I've already had my experiences with police works. After studying behavioural psychology and dropping out to join the police academy, I have been working with Homicide for several years. But still, the Special Forces are a complete different matter. Inside, I take another moment to take in the surroundings while taking the ear buds out and stopping the music. It seems a modern building, a few officers are rushing around, and a cute young lady is sitting at a spacious front desk.  
"Can I help you, sir?" she asks, her brown eyes looking up to me as friendly as her smile.  
"Oh, please" I smile while I walk up to her."Don't call me sir, you make me feel old. My name's Nicholas Taylor, I am to report to Sergeant Gregory Parker today." I hand her my ID and wait for confirmation.  
"Alright, Sergeant Parker will be here in a few. You can have seat in the briefing room if you like." The girl points me towards a separate room with a conference table.  
"And it's Winnie, by the way. Winnie Camden. Welcome to Team One." She smiles brightly at me, leaving me no choice but to smile back.  
"Nick. Thank you Winnie, I am glad to be here." I wink at her and go to wait inside the briefing room.

"Team One, this is Nicholas Taylor, I'm sure you remember him from the recruiting trials. He'll be with us from today on." Sergeant Greg Parker nods at me and continues."I'm not going to embarrass all of us with any speeches, just a little reminder." Greg Parker points out everyone from Team One for me, starting with a bald guy with blue eyes."Ed Lane, Team Leader." Ed nods his greetings.  
"Next to him, Jules Callaghan."  
"Hey" the brown haired girl replies with a light smile.  
"Michelangelo Scarlatti" Greg continues as he points to a guy with dark brown hair.  
"It's Spike" he tells me and grins with amusement.  
Greg turns to face a dark skinned woman with short black hair.  
"Leah Kerns." She nods.  
"And Sam Braddock." The blond haired guy right next to me smiles and offers his hand in greeting.  
"Good. Sam, please show Nicholas his locker and show him around a bit. The rest of you, off to the-"  
The alarm goes off, interrupting Greg midsentence.

"Team One, hot call!" Winnie announces as the Team rushes to get ready. I need a moment to realize that I have no idea what to do right now. I quickly follow the rest of the Team to the equipment lockers.  
"Nicholas, you'll be with me today. Observation only." Greg hands me a life vest and an earpiece and I swiftly put it on above my workaday clothes. Observation only. Of course, I don't even have a badge or gear, yet.

"Ok, Team One, we've got a little girl kidnapped from her mother in the middle of the Scarborough Shopping Centre" Greg begins his briefing while Jules is driving to the scene, with me sitting behind them in the back of the car. "The name is Kelly McAlister, two years old. Mother is Jennifer McAlister. She is waiting for us at the mall. Check your PDAs for a photo and floor plans." Greg hands me his PDA to have a look at the girl before he continues.  
"The kidnapper has not been seen by the mother. It happened while she was looking at a display window on third floor. Every entrance is under lockdown but there might still be a chance that the kidnapper could get out before that. Nicholas and I will speak to the mother, Jules and Leah, you take first and second floor, Ed and Sam, third floor and above. Search for witnesses and possible suspects, you know the drill. Clear every floor and store, every changing cubicle and public toilet. Ed, you start at the shop where it happened, Femme de Carriere, number three-oh-three."  
"_Copy that" _Ed replies via radio.  
"Spike" Greg continues as we park the cars in front of the mall and get off. "You get into the truck and give me every intel on the girl and her mother you can find. Anything might be useful here. Let's keep the peace!"

As we rush into the mall to split up and begin our investigation, one of the police officers maintaining the perimeter offers Greg his hand in greeting. "Officer Smith. Sergeant, it is good you're here. I'll take you to the mother."  
"Did she say anything new, yet? Anything that could be useful?" Greg inquires.  
"Nothing new, Sergeant. Just that she was looking at a display window and suddenly her girl was missing. She searched for her but couldn't find her. Some guards noticed, locked the building down immediately and called nine-one-one."  
"Thank you, Officer, please let the security guard in charge be brought here" Greg states as we come to a halt in front of the mother. The Officer nods and rushes to get the security guards. The mother is younger than I would have thought. She looks like twenty years tops, her long blonde hair is falling unorderly over her shoulders. She sobs and shivers constantly, hugs herself, trying to smother the tears that are still running down her blotchy cheeks. She looks very lonely and desperate right now, making me feel sorry for her.

"Mrs. McAlister? My Name is Sergeant Gregory Parker, I am with the Police, Strategic Response Unit. How are you holding up?" The mother seems unresponsive for a few seconds, but slowly turns her head towards Greg.  
"It's Miss. Find my girl. Oh p-please, f-find my… my girl!" she breaks down in tears again, letting herself fall into Greg's arms.  
"We are doing our best to find her, Miss. My officers are currently searching for her everywhere, but you need to help me out here, okay? You need to help me understand what happened. Can you do that?" Greg sounds understanding and caring, and slowly the young mother calms down and stands back again.  
"O-of course. I-I'll try" she sobs.  
"That is great, Miss. Tell me about what happened today."  
"I-I just wanted to get out for a bit… like every Monday. B-but my friend was ill… normally she comes with us. S-so I took Kelly and we c-came here alone and I… I just wanted to look at the w-windows. I don't even have money to spend, I j-just wanted to look... I am so sorry Kelly, I am so, so sorry…" She breaks down in tears again but keeps talking.  
"I was at… at some shop and there was that d-dress that I wanted to buy so badly… I took a c-closer look through the window and w-wished I could just go in and get it, and m-maybe I was looking too l-long and when I turned back to Kelly sh-she was g-gone. Out of h-her s-stroller. I screamed for her, h-hoping she j-just got free herself… she managed that once before, y-you know." Miss McAlister takes a deep breath and Greg pats her arm.  
"You are doing fine, Miss. Really fine. What happened next?"  
"I-I don't know! I screamed and searched and cried and then this y-young man comes over and tells me the police is on its way and… and…" She falls silent and buries her face in her hands.

Greg signals an Officer to take care of the woman and walks me a few steps to the side as he calls to Spike over the radio.  
"Spike, find out something interesting?"  
"_Yeah, looks like. Jennifer McAlister, eighteen years old, got pregnant age fifteen. Child's father unknown. Mother died ten years ago. Steven McAlister, her own father, disowned her and threw her out of his house. She got into a Mother and Child care programme and still lives in a monitored flat share community with two other young mothers. No siblings. I'll contact the father next."  
_"Keep me posted, Spike. And let her social worker be brought in."  
"_Already done, boss, she's on her way."_

"What do you think of this?" Greg turns to me, a testing look in his eyes.  
"I say, we need to find out who the father is. Could be personal." Greg nods in agreement.  
"_Boss, I found some witnesses." _Jules' voice sounds over the radio. "Go on" he urges.  
"_Two woman saw a man carrying a crying child downstairs in a hurry. Child description fits on Kelly. The man is described as seemingly aggressive, blue baseball cap, brown leather jacket. They could not see his face, nor made out a weapon, but he violently pushed other visitors aside to get through in his hurry."  
_"Where exactly did they see him?" Greg asks.  
"_Near the escalator from third to second floor."  
_"Thank you, Jules. Spike, did you get that?"  
"_Already on it, boss, vid's just came in!"_ Spike states.

"_Boss, on third floor nobody saw a thing" _Ed's voice comes in._ "I've sent the employees of the Femme store down to you, they did not see anything, but you might wanna check. We cleared this floor, not a single person up here anymore. Officers are holding the perimeter. We start checking out fourth floor now."  
_"Alright. Go on."  
Greg nods to me and we turn back to Miss McAlister.  
"Miss, is there anybody we could call for you? A friend, or Kelly's father?" The girl looks shocked upon this question.  
"Th-there is no father" she replies.  
"What?" he impatiently asks.  
"N-no, sir. There simply is n-no father." Miss McAlister looks at the ground and seems to shiver even more.

Greg sighs and turns away from her. "Spike, any charges or accusations laid by or including Miss McAlister or her family?"  
"_Nothing available, boss."  
_"Miss" he faces her again, speaking with a stern voice."I cannot believe in immaculate conception here. We want to find your little girl as soon as possible and therefore you need to be honest with me. You need to be brave and I know it can be hard admitting some things, even if you cannot be blamed for anything. But you have to tell me who the father is, right now."  
The girl takes a moment to breathe and nervously chews her lips. As she looks up at Greg again I can clearly see a new fear in her eyes.  
"D-do you think he h-has something to do with this?" she asks, clearly afraid.  
"I don't know that, Miss, as long as I don't know what happened."  
"All… alright" Miss McAlister begins slowly. "I-I was fifteen. My friends and I went to a house party of some college students and… and I can't remember much more, really. I woke up in an alien bed with a strange feeling and bruises all over my body and… I was naked and…" She stops and turns away from us. "I n-never hat sex before in my life!" she cries.

"_Boss."_ Spike calls._"I found a social network page of Miss McAlister. Not updated since two and a half years, she must have blocked that page. It's full of harassing comments about her having wild sex with several boys on that party she mentioned. Posts from other girls accusing her of being a bitch and stealing their boyfriends. Anonymous posts about how good it was. Even some very intimate photographs. Boss, the pictures let it really look like she enjoyed it."  
_"Any names or recognisable faces?" Greg asks.  
"_Negative."  
_"Thank you Spike." Greg turns to me again, hands on his hips, thinking.  
"I guess that's why she never pressed charges against her tormentors, because they made it clear they could prove that she agreed" I comment on the matter, feeling a bit nauseous. "Or even liked it. They used those photos to bribe her into not telling anyone what really happened."  
"_Sarge" _Jules reports over the radio. _"First and second floor cleared. All visitors have been assembled at first floor main area. There have been a handful of witnesses, but nothing new. All of them saw a man with a baseball cap and a struggling child. No clues to his whereabouts. Floors, shops and toilets clear."  
_"Copy that, Jules. Come down and join me. Leah, go find Ed" Greg orders.

"Sir" an Officer approaches us with a woman in tow. "You wanted to speak to Mrs. Bolton, right?"  
"Mary Bolton" the woman offers her hand in greeting to both Greg and me. "I am the social worker responsible for Jenny McAlister and her flatmates."  
"Mrs. Bolton, thank you for coming. Miss McAlister's girl Kelly was kidnapped this morning. I believe the Officer filled you in on the situation. Please, tell me about Miss McAlister and her daughter."  
"Jenny is a nice girl, not very outgoing, very silent and introverted and hard to develop trust. She cut ties with all friends and family when she got pregnant and came to live in our Mother and Child Care programme. She is a caring mother but only seldom goes out of the house on her own. She has a weekly routine to come here with her friend and flatmate Carol, though." Mrs. Bolton takes a break in her speech and looks at Greg seriously.  
"What happened to her is a grave story. Her child was conceived during rape. We know the names of likely suspects, as she told us during therapy, but Mrs. Bolton refused to press any charges until a few weeks ago."  
"What happened?" I inquire and Mrs. Bolton turns to me.  
"She agreed upon lawfully enforcing paternity tests of all suspects to find out who the father is. Most of them could be persuaded to resolve this matter outside court."  
"Any results, yet?" Greg lifts his cap and wipes his forehead as he listens.  
"We could narrow the list down to two persons. Marc Townsend and Phil Reed. Both men declined the test and claim to have nothing to do with the incident at all. Charges will be pressed officially if the negotiations continue to fail."  
"_That_ Reed? Son of Minister Phillip Reed Sr.?" I ask her.  
"Exactly" Mrs. Bolton replies, nodding.  
"_Boss" _Spike joins in._ "I ran both names and Phil Reed Jr. was age twenty-one when the incident happened."  
_"So if they could prove he is the father, he would be charged for rape of an underage child, regardless of how it looked on the photos" Greg concludes and I cannot help but feeling a little queasy again.  
"Thank you, Mrs. Bolton. Please stick around for a while." Mrs. Bolton nods and turns to go and comfort Miss McAlister.

"Spike, any luck on the CCTV?" Greg asks as Jules joins us, greeting me with a small nod.  
"_Nothing so far. He did not leave the building on any monitored exit, which is good, but although the camera network covers every exit, it does not cover the whole area inside the building. He seems to have vanished somewhere between second and fourth floor. I saw him leaving the third floor on the back door staircases but he never arrived on the second, nor the fourth floor staircase camera. No other entrances or exits in that area on the floor plans. Ed and Sam are currently checking it out."  
_"Eddie, status?" Greg inquires.  
"_Nothing boss, no door, no opened window, no sign of anyone. We're checking out where exactly the cameras have a blind eye."  
_"Keep me posted. Spike, contact Mr. Townsend and send me the contact details of Mr. Reed"  
"_Done."  
_Greg proceeds to unbag his PDA and takes a call.  
"Mr. Reed, this is Sergeant Gregory Parker, I'm with the Police Strategic Response Unit. Do you have any knowledge of the whereabouts of your son, Phil Reed Jr.?"  
A few moments of silence occur, while Mr. Reed answers.  
"I understand" Greg continues to speak. "Please give me the cellphone number of your son. I urgently need to speak to him." Greg writes down the number on his notepad. "Yes, thank you, Sir. Please be available today for further questions."  
Another few moments of silence.  
"I understand. The Scarborough Shopping Centre. Thank you, Sir." He hangs up and turns to Jules.  
"Jules, Mr. Reed Sr. is on his way to us. Maybe we can gather further intel from him. I need you to welcome Mr. Reed and interrogate him about his son."  
"Copy." Jules turns and walks outside to wait for Mr. Reed.  
Greg types the cellphone number of Reed Jr. into his phone and takes it up to his ear, only to hang up disappointed after a few seconds.  
"Directly to mailbox. Spike, any luck with Mr. Townsend?"  
"_According to his mother, Mr. Townsend is visiting a friend in Quebec. He's been out of town since a week"_ Spike answers.

"_Boss, we may have found something" _Sam reports. _"A concealed door halfway up between third and fourth floor. It's locked, but it may be where the kidnapper went."  
_"_Agreed" _Ed continues. _"Security door, build-in to match the walls, no door handle, only a small concealed keyhole."  
_"We'll get a Security Officer. Stand by." Greg signals me and I start jogging to the lead officer of the in-house Security. I walk him back to Greg quickly.  
"Do you have knowledge of a concealed security door between third and fourth floor?" I ask him on the way.  
"Of course" the officer answers. "That door leads to a second security office. We have our headquarters on the first floor, so we do not use that one regularly. You need a special key to get in."  
"We'll need this key, ASAP" I tell him urgently while we arrive to stand at Greg's side again. "Boss, did you get that?"  
"Yes. Go, get that key and meet up with Ed." He hands me his gun. "I trust you know how to use this, Nicholas. Keep back and obey Ed's orders. Understood?"  
"Yes, boss, loud and clear" I answer as I take his weapon.

I nod at the officer and we jog towards the first floor security office to grab the keys.  
"What is the layout of the security rooms upstairs?" I ask the officer during the run.  
"A floor, one surveillance room on the left, two bathrooms on the right. That's all."  
"Any weapons locker's or some like that?" I ask further.  
"Nothing" the officer shakes his head. "Just some surveillance monitors and a coffee maker."  
"Thank you, sir" I tell him as he hands me the keys and explains which key is the right one. "Please report back to Sergeant Parker."

I rush towards the staircase and run up to Ed and the assembled rest of Team One.  
"Thanks" Ed notes as I hand him the keys. "Spike, do we have a layout of what is behind this doors?"  
"_Sorry Ed, nothing on the plans."  
_"There's a straight floor behind this door, a surveillance room on the left hand side, and bathrooms on the right" I repeat to Ed what the security officer told me before. "No weapons locker or similar things, but some functional surveillance monitors. He could be waiting for us."  
"_That's right, but you're in a blind spot over there. He can't see you move in on the monitors"_ Spike comments over radio.  
"Alright" Ed nods."We go in quiet and carefully. I go first, Sam, you're Sierra, Leah, less lethal. Nicholas, you follow behind, stay out of trouble and watch our backs."  
"Copy" we echo at Ed's orders.  
"_Ed, the Security Officer just told me that one of his employees, Mr. Carl Benson, reported to be ill this morning. Also, the keychain of Officer Benson as well as another spare key to that security office were missing today, even though all officers are required to leave their keys in the office after shift. The subject must've gotten the keys from him"_ Greg updates us.  
"Copy. Leah, open the door on the count of three. Carefully, I don't want to hear any noise, of any of you" Ed commands in a hushed voice."One. Two. Three."

Leah carefully swings the door open, while everyone stands back in cover. A quick glance confirms the floor is empty and silent. Ed signals to go and quietly and quickly rushes in, the others follow equally silent. They stop at the open door to the left, Ed takes out a mirror to have a look around the corner without being detected and signals us to fall back a few feet.  
"One subject inside the room, he's pacing in front of some monitors, directly on the opposite side of the room, possibly checking our movements on the CCTV. Matches the descriptions: tall man, baseball cap, leather jacket. The little girl seems to be sleeping on a sofa on the left wall" Ed whispers and draws the layout of the room in the air for us to have a better understanding.  
"We rush in" he continues. No immediate obstacles inside the room, but we need to do it quickly, we need to get to him before he can get to that girl. Sam, you go in first. Leah, less lethal. Both of you, be careful. We still do not know if he has a weapon. Don't shoot until necessary."  
"Copy that" Sam and Leah nod.  
"Nicholas, you come in behind us. Go straight to the sofa on the left side and check the girl. We won't let him come through to her" he continues, looking at me.  
"Understood" I agree.  
Ed nods and we take our positions outside the security room. He holds three fingers up, and after a quick glance to confirm our state of readiness, counts to zero with his fingers and motions to go.

After this, everything happens very quickly, and then it's over within only a few seconds.  
"POLICE! SRU! WEAPONS ON THE GROUND!ON THE GROUND! DO IT NOW!" They scream simultaneously and continue to do so while I rush to the sofa where the little girl looks up and sits straight, scared and confused.  
"Hey Kelly, my name is Nicki." I carefully block her view with my body while kneeling down in front of her. "I'm with the police, you know? Everything is alright now, we'll take you to your mama, ok?" The little girl looks at me with tear-stained, red eyes and a blotchy face. She nods carefully. "Are you hurt?" I ask, but she shakes her head.  
"Come on, I'll take you to your mama" I assure her again and she lets me take her up in my arms. I take a look around. The kidnapper is lying on the ground, with Ed kneeling on his back, cuffing his hands, while Sam and Leah still point their weapons at him.  
"Subject contained" Ed declares. "And the little girl is save and unharmed."

As we decent the stairs and walk into the main hall, Miss McAlister rushes towards me, crying, to take her little girl out of my arms.  
"Thank you, thank you, thank you so much" she whispers as she clutches to her crying daughter. The EMS waiting right behind her to check the girl for injuries.

* * *

"Good job everyone" Greg declares as we sit down again in the briefing room at HQ.  
"The subject, confirmed as Mr. Phil Reed Jr., was afraid the paternity test would confirm the rape of Miss McAlister, three years ago. He decided to get rid of the, as he believed, only evidence against him – the child – and kidnapped her during the weekly trip to the shopping mall. He must've watched her closely before, or had hired someone watching her every step. He also had connections to one of the security guards, Mr. Carl Benson, who explained the standard procedure of lockdown during an emergency like a missing child. Also, Mr. Benson took his keys home and gave them to Mr. Reed, so he could access the no longer used security station between third and fourth floor, where the suspect planned to wait until the shopping centre would be clear. He planned his escape most likely for the night, when the searches would have been unsuccessful and the police and visitors would've been dismissed. There is no confirmation as to what he had planned to do with the girl. Official charges against him are being pressed. Any questions left?"  
Greg takes a look at all of us and smiles as no further questions come up.  
"Good. You did well today, all of you." As soon as the boss dismisses us, the chatter between the other members of Team One starts, and I again am left feeling a bit unsure and indecisive, until someone pats my shoulder.  
"Come on, rookie." I look up into Sam's smiling face. "I'll show you around a bit."


	2. Happy, happy Birthday

**Chapter two –Happy, happy birthday  
****Friday, 14th September****, ****2012**

I close my locker inside the SRU changing room, stepping up to the mirror on the wall to tie my hair into its usual ponytail.  
"Damned things" I murmur at the few stubborn strands of hair that once again refuse to be tied up. My hair just isn't long enough, yet, to last in a ponytail. It is too thick, to stubborn and too curly to do what I want. I give in with a sigh and let that one loose strand fall as it wishes, turning around to enter the gym. It'll get better after the shower, when the hair is wet.

"No, no, no, it's not like that! I just accidentally bumped into her on the streets and we went to have coffee, Sam, as friends!" I hear Spike declare as soon as I enter the gym.  
"Yeah?" Sam retorts. "So you admit bumping my sister, Spike?" he teases him between push ups.  
"Hey, Nicki, good to see you, tell us of your weekend plans!" Spike tries to change the subject as he sees me enter.  
"I dunno" I grin at him, not willing to let him off the hook so easily. "I'd rather hear of your date with Sam's sister." I hear Sam laughing out loud as I step onto the treadmill for a quick warm up.  
"Yeah, yeah. Just keep supping with the devil... And I was just about to ask you two to join me for a beer or two, after shift…" he lets out a false sigh of disappointment while looking at me. "Too bad" he grins.  
"Alright, boys." Ed enters the room with the rest of Team One trailing behind, clapping his hands. "It's time for some stamina training. Up you go!"  
As we are about to get started, the alarm goes off.  
"Team One, hot call!" We hear Winnie's voice on the loudspeakers as we rush to the lockers and quickly change. A few minutes later, we take off.

"_We have a hostage situation at a birthday party, Maple Leaf Drive. Approximately twenty guests, the host is Mr. Bryant, executive director of Bryant Industries Ltd., it is his fiftieth Birthday. One unidentified subject, a guest called nine-one-one when she heard shooting. The call has been interrupted. No word on casualties. The cellphone is unavailable." _Greg summarizes what he knows so far._ "Spike, you find out anything useful about Mr. Bryant and his family. And try to get us floor plans of that house. Jules, you are my second."  
_"_Sam, Leah, you're Alpha Team, Nick and I are Bravo Team"_ Ed continues over the radio. _"We scout out the house and the surroundings, we need eyes and ears in. Alpha Team, you take the north and east sides, we take south and west."  
_

It takes another few minutes of radio silence until we arrive at a spacious two-story house with two driveways and a wide entrance door. The front of the house, facing south, is closed off, windows and blinds shut. A balcony on the upper floor looms on the right hand side, above the entrance to a garage, and turns around the corner to continue on the east side of the house.  
"Keep the peace, boys" Greg states as we take off in our assigned directions. Ed and I rush up to the front of the house and scout around the corner, always keeping an eye on any window as well as our surroundings. The western side of the house features a wide backyard that continues on the northern side. We carefully check each window, but everywhere the shutters are closed.  
"Alpha Team, status" Ed demands quietly as we walk back to the front.  
"_Ed, we got eyes. Northern side, terrace window, broadcasting now"_ Sam informs us over the radio.  
"Great. Meet us back in front" Ed orders.

"_Mr. Frank Bryant, current wife Elena Bryant"_ we hear Spike over the radio. _"It's the second time he's married. His first son, Tobias, twenty years old, from his first marriage. Mother died of a heart attack caused by drug abuse, ten years ago. Second son, Tommy, seven years old. He's possibly in that house right now, guys. Tobias started doing drugs as a teenager, has been into therapy two times. Records say he's clean since the last time, about a year ago."  
_We meet with Jules and Greg at the front fence, where they've set up the floor plans and a laptop to watch the broadcast. We see the subject near a fireplace at the eastern wall. He's pacing up and down, talking, arguing. A woman stands right in front of him, visibly desperate, trying to calm the suspect down, arguing with him. They seem to know each other. The birthday party guests are sitting in rows at the western site of the room. One body is lying on the floor between the two groups, unmoving. Another person cowers on the floor, next to the fireplace.  
"You see a kid in there somewhere?" Jules asks skeptically. "He may be upstairs instead, playing in his room."  
"Subject armed with a handgun" Greg summarizes. "Visibly agitated and arguing with a woman. One possible casualty."  
"We try to make a stealth entry via the upper front balcony" Ed points out the balcony at the floor plan. "If we're lucky there are doors or windows unlocked. We can have an easy climb from that front porch in front of the main entrance. Boss?"  
"I'll start negotiating. No access until I give the go" Greg states and walks up to the house, megaphone in hand.

"This is Sergeant Gregory Parker, I am with the Police, Strategic Response Unit. I will call the telephone inside the house right now. Please answer when it rings!" he shouts, simultaneously dialling the telephone number. After a few moments without response, he tries again.  
"This is Sergeant Greg Parker, I am calling the internal telephone right now. Please answer, so we can talk!" Greg turns to Ed and nods his head.

Ed turns to us. "Ok guys. Sam, you're Sierra, try to find a good spot overlooking the living room."  
We hear Greg shouting over the megaphone again. "This is Sergeant Greg Parker. We need to know if everything's okay in there, buddy. Please answer the telephone and talk to me!"  
"Leah, you're with us" Ed continues. "We try the upper balcony. Let's go!"  
We rush forward to the balcony, climbing up from the front porch. I listen to Spike talking to Greg via the radio.

"_Boss, I have a positive match on the subject: Tobias Bryant, twenty year old son of Mr. Bryant. Moved out two years ago, living in an apartment downtown."  
_"_Any wife or girlfriend we could call to give us some intel?" _Greg inquires.  
"_His fiancée, Laura, passed away…"_ Spike hesitates a short moment _"…a week ago. Today was the funeral" _he explains._ "What kind of father throws a birthday party on the day his son's fiancée is buried?"  
_"_Doesn't seem like they are getting along. Cause of death?" Greg replies.  
_"_Suicide. Took an overdose sleeping pills. Boss, records say Tobias blames his father for her suicide. He's trying to press charges for murder."  
_"_Call his lawyer and patch me through. And find out more about Laura."  
_"_On it."_

I step onto the front porch and climb the balustrade. From here I can reach the balcony balustrade and climb up, Ed giving me a hand from above. As soon as we are up, Leah starts unlocking the door.  
"_Laura Kinsley, twenty-four years old. Low born, former drug addict, has been arrested several times for drug possession and abuse. Ninety days in jail last year. Undertook therapy while in jail, still ongoing until her death, records say she's been clean since then. Boss, the lawyer will call you in a moment" _Spike reports his findings over radio.  
"_Thanks, Spike"_ Greg answers.

Leah finally opens the balcony door and we enter the house quiet and slowly, checking each corner of the bedroom we're now in. As we reach the door to the corridor, Ed motions for me to go right to check out the other rooms. He opens the door and turns left with Leah, while I head right, slowly opening one door after the other, checking the rooms behind. As I turn into the last room, I notice small feet in blue socks sticking out from under a children's bed.  
"Ed" I smoothly call him over the radio. "I got a child in here." I turn towards the bed and kneel down.  
"Hey there. My name is Nicki, I'm with the Police. What's your name?"  
"Tommy" a quiet, muffled voice sounds out from under the bed. I can hear Ed coming up behind me, checking the corridor while I talk to the kid.  
"Sam, come back front, get to the balcony. I need you there" Ed orders. "Get him outta here, quiet."  
"Hey Tommy" I speak again. "It's nice to meet you. Would you mind coming out, so I can see you properly?" A few moments pass and I am already thinking if it would be better to simply lock up the door from the outside and leave the kid in here, but then he hesitantly moves and crawls out from under the bed. He looks scared.  
"Good, you're already a big boy, are you not?" I praise him. "This is a serious situation, you know that don't you?" The boy nods. "That's good, that's good. I need you to do exactly what I tell you now, Tommy, can you do that? Listen. I will carry you to the balcony in your parents' room. I will help you get down from that balcony and onto the ground floor. I need you to be perfectly still the entire time. It is important that you do not scream or say anything, ok? Can you do that, Tommy?" He nods and I smile at him.  
"You're a good boy, Tommy, thank you very much. I have some friends outside that will keep you company. Is that ok?" He nods again. "Alright then, Tommy, let's start." I hold out my hand and swoop him up into my arms as soon as he grabs it. "You're doing great, Tommy" I whisper again as I carefully carry him to the balcony. I sit him down on the balustrade and point to Sam, who is now standing on the porch, right below us. "Do you see my friend down there? That is Sam. I promise you, we won't hurt you, and we won't let you fall down, I promise. Alright?" Tommy nods. "You are such a brave boy, Tommy. You're doing great!" I grab his hands and slowly lift him up and over the balustrade, letting him down until Sam gets a hold of him.  
"Got him" Sam confirms and I let go. Tommy lands safely inside Sam's arms, who lets him down to the ground and sends him to Jules.

"_Sam, Nicki, I need you up here"_ Ed calls over the radio. I offer my hand to Sam and help him climbing up to the balcony. We quietly rush inside to meet up with Ed. The corridor on the upper floor ends in a small indoor balcony overlooking the two-story high living room where the hostages are held. On the right side, where the corridor begins, a lightly curved staircase leads to the ground floor.  
"Sam, you're still Sierra One. Leah, you're Sierra Two. You have a good spot overlooking the area from there" Ed points to the far off end of the balcony. "And there" he points to the corner of the corridor facing the living room. "I will try talking to him. Nicki, you're my backup. Boss? Any intel?"  
"_The girl, Laura, was clean since more than a year" _Greg tells us via radio._"She met Tobias during therapy. Apparently they were made for each other and managed to stay clean together. Friends say they meant the world for each other. The wedding was scheduled for next month, but Tobias' parents, especially his father, never approved. He harassed his son and his soon-to-be wife. Calls, mails, visits. Physical assault. He is even accused of having hired someone to break into their apartment and destroy every bit of possession they had. Friends say Laura couldn't take it anymore, so Tobias blames his father for her death."  
_"We need to be careful then" I considerately comment. "It's possible he does not care anymore if he dies."  
"That's right" Ed nods. "Sam, Leah, positions?"  
"_All set_ Sam confirms. _"I've got the solution."_

"Tobias Bryant!" Ed calls downstairs, carefully looking around the corridor walls for cover. "My name is Ed Lane. I'm with the Police, Strategic Response Unit. I need to talk to you, buddy."  
"Go _AWAY!"_ Tobias shrieks from downstairs. He sounds desperate and full of tears. "I don't _NEED _no _fucking_ police!"  
"Alright. Alright. I can understand that, buddy. But I cannot go away until I know that everyone is OK down there. Would you mind telling me if anyone is hurt? What about the man lying in the middle of the room. Is he injured?" Ed inquired.  
"No" Tobias replies, sobbing. "No, he's… he's ok. He just had a shock when I came in that's all. But he's ok." Tobias moved to the man lying on the floor in the middle of the room. "You're ok, aren't you? Tell them you're ok!" He orders harshly.  
"I-I'm good" the man on the ground stutters with a small voice.  
"That's good buddy" Ed replied. "That's good. You know what that means? That means you have not hurt anybody. It means that there's no harm done. That's very good." Ed pauses before continuing.  
"I would like to see you, buddy, is that ok? I'm coming around the corner know. I have a friend with me, but we won't do anything to you, I promise, as long as you keep your weapon down." He motions for me to move around the corner, so he can follow while talking. Ed places his left hand on my right shoulder and steers me with it in the directions he wants to go. I keep my weapon up and aimed while I slowly move, step by step around the corner and onto the platform. "Ok, buddy? Keep that weapon down." We slowly move down the first few steps of the stairs.  
"Stay _THERE_!" Tobias shrieks. "Don't come any closer! Don't come _ANY CLOSER_!" We halt.  
"Alright. Alright, buddy. We will stay right here. Right here. You see? We're not moving" Ed tries to calm him down.  
"You know what, buddy? Look at me. Look at me. I have no weapon in my hands. Do you see my hands?" I have my eyes fixed on Tobias. He hesitates a bit. Looking confused, hurt, desperate and afraid, all at the same time. He tries to think and turns and paces around before brushing his hair with his left hand and turning back to Ed.  
"Yes" he answers, his gaze firmly fixed on Ed.  
"No weapon, buddy. I only want to talk to you, ok? I only want to talk" Ed carefully explains."Tobias, buddy, I know this is about Laura. I know it is about your father and I know it is hard."  
"_YOU_ know _NOTHING_!" Tobias shrieks again and points his gun at Ed, then at his father, then back at Ed, clearly confused and angry. "You know nothing" he repeats.  
"Ok buddy, ok" Ed tries again. "Then talk to me, Tobias. Explain it for me. I want to understand you, hear me buddy? I want to help you."  
"You cannot _help_ me!" he cries with angry tears streaming down his face, looking down at the floor, pacing again, tearing his hair. "You should've been there a _year_ ago! Not now! You cannot help _NOW!"  
_Tobias looks up at Ed with angry, tear strained eyes as he points his gun at his father. "He _killed_ Laura! He _killed_ her!" Tobias turns and paces the floor again, both hands pressed against his head.  
"I hear you buddy. I hear you" Ed tries to reassure him. "Nothing is harder than losing someone you love, buddy, I know what it's like. But those people over there. They have nothing to do with all this, or do they? It is between you and your father, is it not? What do you think, can we just let them go? Hu, buddy? Can we let them go?"  
Tobias thinks a moment and starts pacing again. "Okay, they can go." He finally declared. "Get out. Out,_ OUT! OUT!_" he shouts at the guests as they hurriedly start escaping the room, two of them quickly helping the man that has been lying in the middle of the room.  
"Nice and slow, ladies and gentlemen, nice and slow. Everything is ok here, please go calm and careful" Ed tries to calm down the guests. "Boss, hostages coming out the front door" he softly reports before turning back to Tobias. "Thank you buddy, that was really nice of you." He pauses as he stirs me forward and we take a few more steps down the stairs. We descent slowly, carefully, trying not to scare Tobias.  
"The woman in front of you. Is that your mother?" Ed asks.  
"Yes. No. Not mine. Tommy's" Tobias replies.  
"And Tommy, is he your brother?" Ed asks again.  
"Tommy." Tobias turns around, searching. "Where's Tommy? What did you _DO_ to Tommy?" he shrieks again and points his gun at his father.  
"Tobias, buddy, calm down. Calm down. We did not do anything to Tommy. That's good, calm down and lower that weapon. He is outside, playing with my friend Jules. Lower that weapon, please, buddy" Ed calmly explains.  
"_Ed, try to find out why Tommy is so important to him"_ we hear Greg's voice over the radio.  
Tobias seems to calm himself down again a little bit and lowers the weapon.  
"Tommy is outside with my friends. He is a very brave and clever young man, he really is. My friend Nicholas here talked to Tommy, not so long ago. He really is a clever kid. He's your brother, Tobias?" Ed signals me to take another step on the stairs. Just one, then we stand still again, facing Tobias.  
"He is. Best little brother. I need to protect him from that _monster_!" Tobias spits at his father and again points his weapon at him.  
"Tobias, buddy, keep that weapon low, ok? Please, keep it low. Keep it low. Stay calm, buddy. Stay calm. Look at me." Tobias hesitates a moment but then looks up to Ed, still pointing his gun at his father.  
"Buddy, you love your brother, I know that. I can see that. But you need to understand, if you raise that weapon again, if you attempt to shoot, my friends need to take you down. Do you understand that, buddy? I hear you. I understand you. I know you need to protect your little brother from the monster that killed Laura. But you cannot protect him when you are not around. You cannot protect him when you are dead, do you understand that?" Tobias looks at Ed, seemingly deep in thought, lowering his weapon a few inches. Ed signals me to move down again and we descent the stairs until we're standing on the living room carpet, only a few metres away from Tobias.  
"Laura would have wanted you to live a good life, Tobias. Laura would not have wanted for you to throw it all away. You want revenge? That's good. But this is not the kind of revenge that she'd want. This is not right at all, you know this, don't you, Tobias? Go and get your revenge in court, buddy, when he has to answer for the crimes he has committed."  
Ed waits a few moments to give Tobias some time to comprehend what he just said.  
"Put your weapon on the floor, Tobias. We will go outside, to see your brother Tommy. Ok, buddy? Put your weapon on the floor and all this will be over" Ed calmly urges. "Come on buddy, put it down. Put the weapon down, do it now."  
Tobias hesitates again and looks up at Ed with clear eyes. "Okay" he nods and clicks the safety on his weapon back on before throwing it into the other corner on the room.  
"On the floor, buddy. Hands above your head, do it now!" Tobias follows the orders and lets Ed cuff him. As soon as it's safe, I lower my weapon and kneel in front of Mr. and Mrs. Bryant.  
"Subject contained" Ed reports.  
"Boss, we need EMS in here" I call over the radio. Soon after, EMS rushes in and takes care of the couple, letting me retreat to the outside.

* * *

"Ed, you did a good Job with that kid, today. Well done. All of you, good job." Greg smiles at us, closing the debriefing meeting. "And now, back to the gym, guys, we still have that training scheduled!"

After the training, I decide to take a long, hot shower. Training was refreshing. I gave everything and right now I am feeling worn out but happy and content. I'll probably have some aching muscles tomorrow, but I don't care at all. I feel great!  
As I change back into my jeans and T-shirt, Spike pokes his head inside the room.  
"Nicki, you in here?" He sees me and smiles, fully entering the room as I sit down to tie my shoes, my loose hair falling slightly into my face. "You still up for that beer? Jules, Sam and I are waiting outside."  
I smile up at him and nod. "Sure, why not?"  
"Great!" he sits down next to me, laying his arm around my shoulders. "You now, rookie pays the first round!" he jokes and I laugh. I can live with that.

We walk the small distance to the bar. I push my bike beside me, Sam and Jules constantly joking around next to me. It's a free Saturday tomorrow, no work unless we are called in on an emergency. I will probably sleep in for a change. I feel like I need it.  
"So, Nicki" Spike asks. "You go to work by bike every day?"  
"Yeah. I live in the neighbourhood. Just a few blocks from here" I answer as I lock up my bike in front of the bar and indicating the direction to my apartment with a nod of my head. As I straighten up I push my hair back behind my ears.  
"Nice" Spike comments as we enter the bar together. We look around until we find Sam and Jules at a small corner booth by the window.  
"It's Friday, Sammy, you what that means?" Spike calls out as we sit down. "KARAOKE!" both of them chime, happily smiling as Jules laughs out loud. It is nice to see them so relaxed and easy for a change. It's a great difference to talking to them at work.  
"So, Spike kindly informed me that the first round's up to the rookie. What're you guys having?" I ask, standing up.  
"I'll get a beer" Jules says.  
"Me too. But a large one!" Spike declares and Sam agrees.  
I work my way through the other guests to the bar to place my order.  
"Right away, sweetheart" the woman behind the counter chants. She's a pneumatic blonde, long hair, painted lips and a low cut tube top. "You having fun today with your friends? Gonna sing some songs on stage later?" She asks while placing four bottles of beer on the counter in front of me.  
I laugh. "I don't know, really. Never did that before." I hesitate, casually flipping back my hair, looking at her. "But maybe, if I could find a cute partner to sing with…" I wink at her and put some dollars on the counter. "Change's yours. Thank you!" She smiles up at me as I grab the beer and work my way back to our table.  
"There you go" I place the beer on the table and take my seat next to Spike again.  
"Here's to Nicki" Jules calls out, raising her glass. "He successfully survived his first two weeks without incident!"

"Nah, I don't know, Spike, I never did that before. I cannot sing, I'm not going up on that stage with you!" Only three hours, four beers and a few shots later, Spike, currently sitting on the opposite side of the table, seems to be determined to get me onto that small stage in the back of the bar, where some of the guests already performed. The singing is more or less successful, depending on the singer, but nobody seems to care if it's good or bad. Every singer gets an applause and cheers from the audience. I look up to the stage where Sam and Jules are singing a more or less melodic version of "Lean on me".  
"Ooh, come on!" Spike begs again. "Just one song. You'll like it. I promise, it's great!"  
Amused, I look at him. He seems to be slightly drunk, his dark brown eyes glinting, his cheeks somewhat flushed.  
"Come _on_, Nicki! Please!" he pleads again and leans closer over the table. "Pretty please?" he tries again, pleadingly fluttering his eyelashes. I cannot help but laugh at him. He's someway cute.  
"I'll pay the next round! Anything you want, ok? And you can choose the song."He leans back in his seat. "Come on. I know you want to say yes! I see it in your eyes!" He flashes me a bright smile.  
"Okay, you know what?" I swipe some strands of hair out of my face as I smile at him. "Let's do it!"  
"Nice! I'll get the book" he happily shouts and jumps out of his seat to rush up to the bar and get a songbook. I smile and shake my head as I watch and wait for his return.  
"There you are. Take a look and choose something." He hands me the songbook.  
"Ok" I agree and take the book out of his hands as Jules slumps onto the bench beside me.  
"Jules, help me out here, what could Spike and I sing?" I ask.  
"Ooh, he got you to agree, nice one, Spikey!" Jules happily approves and looks over my shoulder to search the song list. "What about this one?" She asks, pointing out one of the songs.  
"Yeah, that's a great song!" Sam remarks. I did not notice him standing behind us until now.  
"Nah, I don't think so. Let's keep looking." I turn the page and continue to read the song titles.  
"Okay, what about... that?" Sam asks, scanning the song list and pointing to another one.  
"I don't know…" I thumb a few more pages through the book, taking my time reading the list.  
"I've got one" I grin triumphantly at Spike. "Alice Cooper, "Poison". Know that song?"  
"Humph" Spike snorts. "Course I do. Who do you think are you speaking to?" he jokes, scribbles the title and artist down on a piece of paper and jumps up to deliver it to the DJ upon the stage as Sam walks around the booth and sits down on the opposite bench.  
"So, what're you havin'?" Jules asks and stands up. "It's my shout."  
"Another beer would be just fine" I answer and Sam agrees. "Bring one for Spike, too!" I call as she goes up to the bar to place the order. A few moments later, Spike drops himself next to me, putting his arm around my shoulders. "I bribed the DJ with a drink. We're next!" he claims and smiles brightly up to me. I feel a bit nervous as I think about getting onto a stage to perform a song, but the alcohol in my blood does a good job and I quickly dismiss the feeling, smiling back at him. For a short moment he looks directly into my eyes, sending shivers down my spine.

"A big applause for Sandy, Ladies and Gentlemen! Next up on stage: Spike and Nicki, performing Alice Cooper! That's a big one, Spike and Nicki, come up to the stage!" the DJ calls out and I turn my head. Spike hurries off to the stage to grab the microphones and I take another quick gulp of my beer before joining him.  
The first few lines are quite difficult for me to sing as I have some troubles getting adjusted to the feeling of singing on a stage in front of an audience. I nervously play with my hair, but a glance at Spikes reassuring smile as he belts out the song lets me relax a bit more and I concentrate on the text playing on the monitor. When the song ends, I even had fun and smile brightly at the audience. "Thank you Nicki and Spike! A great applause, Ladies and gentlemen, those boys have earned it!" the DJ shouts as Spike and I leave the stage, accompanied by the cheers of the audience.  
"To the bar, Spike! You owe me a shot!" I order him, smiling. Even though it was fun, my face feels hot and my knees shiver a bit.  
"Be right there, gotta take a leak first" he calls back and leaves.  
I sit down at the bar and study the menu card while waiting.  
"So... And here I thought you were flirting with _me_, sweetheart… but it seems you prefer another type of cutie, don't you?" The lady behind the bar remarks with a smirk, winking at me.  
"Oh, I was" I smiled up at her. "But my friend can be quite persisting, you know?" I explain with a grin.  
"I see." She smiles at someone who's coming up behind me and I turn around to see Spike taking a seat next to me. "So, what can I get you two cuties?" We order some shots and get up to join Sam and Jules again.  
"So. That was nice" Jules praises us. "You look great up there!" she beams as I sit down and take my beer.  
"I took a picture" Sam lets us know. "Photographic proof, you know?" He grins at me wickedly.

We talk some more, but another hour into the night, I start getting tired. I say my goodbyes to everyone and leave to unlock my bike. As I straighten up my head spins a bit and I decide it's better to walk home and push the bike. I casually comb my fingers through my hair while I walk and start humming a song, smiling into the night. Today was a good day!


	3. Of dragons and maids

**Chapter three – Of dragons and maids  
****Tuesday, 18th September, 2012**

I drive my bike up in front of the SRU, coming in for nightshift. I dismount and lock my bike up at the rack before entering the building.  
"Hey Winnie" I greet her and smile brightly. "How're you doing?" I lean against her desk to talk to her, resting both of my forearms on the counter.  
"I'm fine, Nicki, thank you" she responds and smiles equally cheerful. Winnie always makes me smile, she's just so good natured. I like talking to her when we've got some time.  
"So, how're you holding up so far?" she asks. "The boys been good to you?"  
"So far, so good. Takes a bit time to get adjusted, but I'm getting there" I reply. "Did you see…"  
"Briefing room, five minutes" Ed commands as he leaves the changing room, passing us.  
"Gotta go change" I state and double knock on her desk to bid her farewell. "Laters, Winnie!" I take my leave and head off to get ready.

As I open my locker, I see a photograph hanging at the outer side of the door. It shows Spike and me on a stage. "Geez" I mutter, smiling and take it off to have a closer look. It was last Friday, Spike and I were singing Alice Cooper during a Karaoke night. Spike is standing on the right side of the stage, facing partly me and partly the audience. He's posing, seemingly unintentional, one hand up beside his head, the other one holding the microphone, slightly bending backwards and his head held high. He is singing with closed eyes, looking the picture of contentment, losing himself in the music. I, however, look a little forlorn beside him. My eyes are fixed on the monitor in front of me, my posture looks a little forced and nervous. I smile at the picture, remembering the night. I had a really great time with the guys.  
"Yeah buddy, we rock!" Spike exclaims happily, putting his arm around my shoulder and taking the picture from my hands. "That's a great shot!" He turns his head a bit, calling over his shoulder "Hey Sam! You put this there? I want a copy!"  
"Look at your locker, bro" Sam calls back from the other side of the room while changing. I didn't even notice the guys coming in, I was so absorbed in my memories.  
"Nice!" Spike proclaims, hands me the picture back with a pat on my shoulder and heads to his own locker. "For next time, you need to work on your performance, bud!" he points at me and orders, winking.

"So" Greg begins after we assembled in the briefing room. "We've got no call yet, so we're going to do a patrol night" he instructs. "Showing ourselves to the public, being the perfect picture of good cops. Sam and Ed, you take east, Spike, Leah, Nick, you're west. Jules and I gonna go north. Be good, kids" he finishes and sends us on our way.

Leah drives the car, with Spike sitting next to her on the front seat and me in the back. We slowly patrol through the night-time streets, watching closely. Spike has a Laptop arranged on top of his lap, switching through some files.  
"Just… just a small bomb" he states and Leah grins beside him. "It never is a bomb. Or – or a hard entry or something. I would settle for that, you know? Oh, I hadn't had a date with Babycakes for… weeks!"  
"Who's Babycakes?" I ask and he turns around in his seat to look at me.  
"Who's…?" He turns to look at Leah, playfully shocked. "Did you hear that, Leah? He doesn't even know Babycakes!" he complains and turns to his Laptop again, switching through some more files, searching for something.  
"This… Is Babycakes" he proudly hands me the laptop and lets me have a look at the picture he just opened. I take it and see him posing with an anti-explosive robot. I grin as I hand him the Laptop back.  
"She seems nice. You gotta introduce me to your girlfriend one time, Spikey." He laughs heartily.

"_Team One, hot call"_ Winnie's voice interrupts us over the radio. _"Kidnapping in progress. Seven year old Robert Montgomery has been abducted from his bedroom. His mother, Sally Montgomery, heard voices and went looking, found her boy gone, the bedroom window open. Took a look out of the window and saw a red and yellow cap speeding away, ten minutes ago. Did not recognize the license plate" _she briefs us the details she's got from the emergency call and gives us the address.  
"Red and yellow cabs? That's Co-Op colors" Spike throws us a bit of information as Leah switches on the sirens. "Go left next, Leah. I know where that address is."  
"_Alright Team One, Jules, and I are gonna find out what we can and talk to the parents. Ed, you're searching the perimeter. Spike, meet us at the house. Winnie, I'll need all available units to contain the area, check on every cab they find. And I'll need you to send me the files of any similar case of the last few years. Especially those where cabs are involved"_ he orders._"And send the Command Truck."  
_"_Copy that, boss."_ Winnie complies.

We park our car in front of a small two story house, next to the Command Truck. I see Jules and Greg standing in front of the house, talking to a crying woman with blond hair. I assume she is the mother of the abducted child. Next to her, a brown haired woman is standing, placing a woollen blanket around the blond woman's shoulders, and trying to calm and comfort her. As soon as we get out of the car, Greg beckons us over, meeting us halfway up the driveway.  
"Sally and Rachel Montgomery" he gives us an update. "Companions in life since twelve years, legally married since two thousand and six. The son, Robert Montgomery, seven years of age is the legally born son of Sally Montgomery and was adopted by Rachel following the marriage. The father is Mr. Charles Martin, though the mother says he's not registered. Mr. Martin was a one night stand of Mrs. Montgomery, eight years back. She got pregnant unexpectedly. According to her, he was the only man she ever had sex with in her life. She never told him about the pregnancy and she never contacted him again. The boy's got diabetes, so we need to hurry up, he needs medication." He sighs and turns to Spike. "Spike?"  
"On my way, boss." Spike replies, turning, and rushes to enter the truck.  
"Thank you Spike." He turns to face Leah and me. "Ed and Sam are already on their way to the fathers last known address. Leah, I need you to get down to Co-Op Cabs and find out what they know about that cab that was speeding away from the scene. Try to find out who the driver was and talk to him, if possible."  
"Copy that" Leah complies and gets back into the SUV we arrived with.  
"Nicki, you go up to the boy's bedroom. Poke around a bit. We may get a clue of who the kidnapper is."  
"Copy." I reply and enter the house, taking a first look around. The house is neatly arranged with modern furniture. Pictures and photographs decorate the walls, plants and flowers are set up nicely all around and everything seems tidy and clean.

"_Mr. Charles Martin"_ Spike begins reporting his findings while I walk upstairs. _"No criminal record, but…" _he takes a short, dramatic pause before he continues_"…formerly employed by Co-Op Cabs as a driver. Worked with them for almost twenty years, registered unemployed at the beginning of September. Last known address matches the address Mrs. Montgomery gave you. Divorced, ex-wife apparently moved to the States, no kids of his own. Parents are Paul and Lucinda Martin, still living in North York. Sending you the address."  
_"_Thank you, Spike" _Greg replies._"What about the case files Winnie sent? Anything useful?"  
_"_Nothing so far, but I'll keep looking."  
_I enter the boy's bedroom and take a look around. Pictures, drawn by a child's hand are attached to the walls everywhere, books, clothes and toys are scattered around on the floor and the furniture. The window is still wide open and I take a look outside. The room faces the neighbour's house, but if you turn the head to the side you can clearly see the street from here. I hesitate, noticing a ladder lying on the grass.  
"Boss, the subject probably came in through the window, using a ladder" I report over radio. "It's lying in the backyard."  
"_I see. Keep searching the room"_ he orders.

"_Boss, we're at Mr. Martin's apartment" _Ed reports over radio. _"It's empty. Neighbours say he moved out about two weeks ago. No message, no forwarding address, no one knows where he went. We're on our way to the parents now."  
_"_Do that, Eddie" _Greg replies.

I have a more detailed look around the boy's room, switching though his things, inspecting his bed, his school bag and his bedside table, but I find nothing of interest. I take a closer look at the pictures on the walls, they are clearly drawn by a child. There's drawings of stick figures resembling two woman and a child, having fun in parks, driving in cars, playing on the playground, bathing in the sea, always happily smiling. Other drawings show stick figures in school, or in a school bus, many small children-stick-figures playing together or standing around a birthday cake.  
"He loves to draw" a female voice behind me says and I turn around.  
"I can clearly see that. Those are pretty nice pictures, very detailed for a child." I reply.  
"Yes. He always draws what he sees, what he experiences at school, or on holidays or trips. We've got a whole box standing in the closet with even more pictures" she sighs, looking exhausted.  
"I will need to have a look at those other pictures" I tell her. She walks up to the closet and pulls out a box, handing it to me.  
"Thank you, Mrs. Montgomery." I put the box down onto the boy's bed and open the lid.  
"It's Rachel. Call me Rachel" she says. "Please, find our boy!" she pleads quietly, tears showing up in her eyes.  
"We will do our best, Rachel." I reassuringly smile at her and pat her arm, then focus my attention on the box.

"_Boss, I've spoken to the head of dispatch at Co-Op Cabs" _Leah reports in. _"There was no registered cab at the Montgomery's address tonight, but he remembers the subject. Mr. Martin was mostly working nightshifts. According to Co-Op Cabs, he was a reliable, hardworking employee, always on time, never ditched duty, always polite. He left the company a few weeks ago without further notice. Just gave a call and never showed up to work again."  
_"_Copy, Leah."_ Greg replies.  
"_Boss, there's more. The Co-Op drivers all use their own vehicles, painted in the company colors red and yellow" _she adds.  
"_Thank you, Leah. Find out about the taxi driver's license of Mr. Martin"_ Greg orders. _"Winnie, I need you to set a search for Mr. Martin's car in motion. And have EMS on stand-by. That boy has diabetes."  
_"_Copy that, boss"_ Winnie replies. _"Consider it done."_

I thumb through the papers as I listen to the radio chatter, they are similar to the ones at the walls. I notice something odd on one of the drawings, something that's different than in all other drawings and take it out to inspect it closer. This drawing shows some kind of a carrousel, a smiling stick figure child sitting upon an animal, a horse maybe. Next to the carrousel a male stick figure is standing, his face looking sad, and a blue teardrop is drawn under his eyes.  
"Rachel, do you know this picture?" I ask her and show her the drawing. She takes it out of my hand and looks at it, shaking her head.  
"No. No, I don't recognize it" she says, handing me the picture back.  
I nod and turn my attention to the box again, searching for more pictures like this one. All in all, I can find four drawings showing the crying stick figure. I arrange the drawings on top of the boy's bed and take out my PDA, taking some photographs.  
"Boss, gotta show you something. Check your PDA" I tell him after sending the pictures. "Rachel, can I keep these for a while?" I turn to her and ask. "Thank you" I reply after she nods. "Boss, the boy loves to draw, his room is full of pictures showing happy memories and smiling families. Those photographs I send you are the only pictures that show a crying man" I report and take one of the picture in my hands, turning it around. I notice a date scribbled to the edge of the paper and take a look at the other pictures to confirm my find. "There's a dates on the back of the drawings" I add. "Eight-thirty, nine-second, nine-six, and nine-sixteen." I list the dates one by one. "The most recent one is only two days ago."  
"_That's quite a find, Nicki. I'll see what we can find out about the man in the pictures"_ he tells me.  
"Rachel?" I turn around to face her again and show her the date on the back of the drawing. "Do you know who wrote this?" I ask her as she takes a look. "I-I don't know… Could be Sally's writing."  
"Boss, Rachel said maybe Sally wrote the dates on the pictures."  
"_Correct"_ he replies._"Sally says she writes the date of the day he draws the pictures on every one, dating back to the day he first held a pen. She says it's pretty accurate. Come back down, and bring Rachel and the pictures."  
_"Copy." I turn to Rachel. "Follow me, please." We go downstairs to meet Greg and Jules in the living room.

"Mrs. Montgomery" Greg begins as I hand him the papers. "Sally. Please take a look at these drawings." He holds the papers out for her and she takes them, looking them through. "Do you remember what your son did on the days he drew those?" he asks her. "Where he was?"  
Sally Montgomery switches through the pictures, thinking.  
"I-I'm not sure" she says. "I-I think this is the day where he was at the amusement park on a school trip." He hands Greg the picture with the carousel, dated September second.  
"Yes. Yes, that was the day." She nods and looks at another picture. "I don't know where this is. I really don't…" she starts crying again. The drawing she holds shows the little stick figure standing beside the larger, sad figure on a green floor, holding an ice cream cone. It was the earliest of them.  
"Sally. Sally, look at me." Jules places her hands on Sally's shoulders. "Look at me, Sally. I know this is hard. But you need to think. Sally. Sally. Breathe in… and out… and in…" she tries to calm her down. "And now, take another look at this drawing. The date says… August thirtieth. What did you do on August thirtieth? That was a… a…"  
"_Thursday"_ Spike informs Jules over radio after quickly looking it up.  
"Thursday, right?" she echoes.  
"That-that was... a school day. I think... I-I picked him up at school and we went to the park on the way home. He p-played on the playground for a while. I… I did not buy him ice cream…" she starts to cry again, tears flowing down her cheeks. "He has diabetes... I never buy him ice cream…"  
"Thank you Sally. Thank you very much, you've been very helpful" Jules comforts her as Greg signals me to walk with him a few steps away from the crying mother, while Jules and Rachel try to comfort her.

"What do you think?" he asks.  
"Well, the father has been purposely left out of his son's life. I'm guessing he found out somehow. Could be he holds a grudge because of it. Could be he wants to play a part in his child's life" I suggest. "I think she may be lying about having no contact to him."  
"I think so, too" Greg agrees. "Jules, we need to separate them. Please speak to Rachel alone for a moment, Nick will join you shortly." He nods at me and I follow Jules and Rachel, who are just leaving the living room. Sally has apparently calmed down a bit. She smiles insecurely as Greg approaches her again. I follow Jules and Rachel to the kitchen, where Rachel starts brewing some tea.

"Rachel" I ask her softly. "Can you tell us about Robert's father, please?" Rachel stops, suddenly visibly angry, the teacup sliding out of her hand and shattering on the ground. Jules and I exchange a look, she is clearly not telling us something.  
"Rachel, we need to know about him." Jules insistently places her hand on Rachel's arm, looking directly into her eyes. "You need to tell us what you know."  
Rachel shrugs Jules' hand from her shoulder and turns around, supporting herself on the kitchen counter.  
"I hate him" she quietly explains after a few moments of silence without facing us. "Sally, she – she cheated on me. We broke up at first, but when she told me she was pregnant and wanted her child to be ours… Well, we spoke, we made up and we had a happy life. She claimed it had only happened that one time. I believed her, but… I don't know. Now I… I think she may still be cheating on me."  
"What makes you think that?" I ask.  
"He was here. That man. That… that Martin. He came to… to see Sally. But she was not home, only I and Robert were." Rachel turns around again, facing us, resting her back at the counter, hugging herself. "I sent him away. Told him to never come back again. To leave us alone. I… I never told her."  
"When was that?" Jules asks.  
"A-a month ago." Rachel turns to look at Jules, shock in her eyes. "Do you… do you think he took Robert because of me? Because I sent him away?"  
"We don't know. We'll find out." Jules turns away from her, asking "Boss? Did you get that?"  
"_Yeah. Meet me in the truck."_ Greg commands.  
"Thank you, Rachel" I tell her as I see Sally approaching. "There's officers outside, they'll stay with you for a while. Try to stay calm." I bid my farewell and follow Jules to the Command Truck as I hear Ed reporting over radio.

"_Boss, he's not with his parents, but they say he was very excited lately. Didn't want to tell them exactly why, but dropped some hints that his life would take a turn for the better, soon."  
_"_Do they have a current address of their son?"_ Greg inquires.  
"_Negative. He did not even tell them that he moved"_ Ed replies.

"_Boss, we've got a location for the cab registered to Mr. Martin. It's been abandoned under a bridge at the Don River. Someone tried to burn it down. Sending you the coordinates right now"_ Winnie suddenly interrupts.  
"_Ed, Leah, meet us there"_ Greg commands and motions for us to follow, as he rushes out of the Command Truck and to the SUV, Spike closely trailing behind. We get into the car and Jules starts driving as fast as she can, the sirens howling.  
"So, what do you think this is about?" Spike asks, sitting in the back seat next to me. "Guy sees a child at his former one night stand's house, does the math, decides that it could be his son and kidnaps him?"  
"No, something's not adding up here. I don't think it'll be that simple" I state.  
"Agreed" Greg says and we drive along in thoughtful silence.

As we arrive at the scene, we are greeted by Fire Services, the half burned car still standing under that bridge.  
"Was a pretty big fire, but we got it under control easily. Only burned about a few minutes" the fire officer exclaimed after greeting us.  
"Did you see someone leaving the scene? Found a second car, tire marks, footprints?" Greg asks.  
"No, sir. No cars or tire marks. Not so sure about the foot prints though" he shrugs as Ed and Sam finally arrive and park their car.  
"Winnie, we've got a manhunt. Let's find out about the surrounding area" Greg orders. "Search for possible places to go to from here. And we need to do a cluster search, send officers." He nods at Ed as they join us.  
"Let's find out where they went. Spike, Nick, you have a look at this area" Ed points out the area south from us. "Search for clues, foot prints, marks, everything. Sam and I will take the other side. Keeping radio contact" he orders and we take out our flashlights, heading off towards the darkness of the indicated area, and beginning our search.

"Ed, we found something" Spike calls, only a few minutes after we began searching, stopping to pick up a silver bracelet, inspecting it with his flashlight. "Could be the boy's medical ID bracelet. Say's Diabetes on the back."  
"_Copy"_ Ed sounds over the radio. _"Coming to you, now."  
_Spike hands the bracelet to me, bends down on one knee while holding his flashlight with his mouth, and takes his backpack off to get out his parabolic microphone. He sets it up as I watch him, putting on some full-sized headphones. He stands up again and turns around, slowly doing a full three-hundred-sixty, pointing the parabolic microphone in every direction, listening to distant sounds and trying to filter out something useful, some hint to the subject. Ed and Sam approach a few seconds later and come to a halt directly in front of us.  
"What've we got?" Ed asks and I hand him the bracelet. He takes it and nods. "Spike? Anything useful?"  
"Yeah, maybe. Heard a child crying and a car engine failing in that direction" he points further south and quickly bags the parabolic microphone while talking. "Could or could not be our subject, but a crying child, in the middle of nowhere, this time of the night? I'd say it's worth taking a look" he concludes and we take off, heading south and thoroughly searching the quad.

"_There's roadblocks and policemen holding the perimeter everywhere. If he's here somewhere, we will find him"_ Greg informs us over radio. _"Officers are doing a cluster search of the area. I'm going to let the parents be picked up and brought here."  
_"Copy that, boss" Ed replies as we emerge onto an abandoned parking lot. An old truck is parking on the lot, the front door gaping wide open.  
"We found an abandoned car. Winnie, run the license number, please" Ed orders and spells Winnie the plate number as we take a look at the car.  
"Seems to have left the car in a hurry" Sam states as Spike tries to start the engine and fails.  
"Engine seems broken. He must've left on foot" Spike reports.  
"_License is registered to a Mr. Charlie Smith"_ Winnie informs us over radio. _"Sending you the address, boss. Nothing else in the records. No wife, no parents, no birth certificate."  
_"_Seems fake enough to me. Thank you, Winnie"_ Greg says. _"Jules, check out the address, see what you can find"_ he orders and Jules complies _"Copy, boss."  
_"Alright guys, let's go" Ed orders and we take off again, searching the area in silence for several minutes.

"_Boss, I'm at Charlie Smith's apartment. Nobody's home_." Jules reports over radio._ "It actually is pretty nice furnished, everything's new-looking. There's a boy's bedroom, nicely done up, but looks never used. There are… no clothes, no shoes, nothing personal. Only toys, books, and such."  
_"_Looks like he wanted the boy to live with him"_ Greg replies. _"Thank you, Jules."_

We were searching the grid for another ten minutes before we hear a shot and start running. As we emerge from the shrubbery we can see a man standing by the riverbed, holding a struggling boy close to him and pointing a gun at an officer.  
"Sir" Ed carefully approaches the man. "Sir, my name is Ed Lane, I'm with the Police Strategic Response Unit." The man swings around, facing Ed and pointing his gun at him as we fan out around him. I carefully approach the officer, not leaving the target out of my eyes.  
"Any harm done? Are you wounded?" I ask and the officer shakes his head. "Good, go. Back out, careful" I tell him quietly and he slowly walks backwards. I take a stand and focus on the subject.  
"Boss, we found him. The boy's with him. He's got a gun" Spike reports.  
"I've got the solution" Sam confirms.  
"Sir, please put the gun down, put the gun down, right now" Ed addresses the subject again. "Just an inch, buddy, just lower it down an inch, okay? So we can talk."  
The subject hectically turns around and point his gun at every one of us before focusing back on Ed.  
"Come on buddy, come on. Just hold the gun down a bit, ok?" Ed tries again. "Let's just talk, all right? I just want to talk to you." Ed moves a bit closer to the subject, lowering his own gun. "See, buddy? I'm lowering my gun, please do the same, so we can talk, okay? Let's talk."  
The subject hesitates another moment but finally complies, lowering his gun a few inches, pointing it at Ed's feet.  
"Still got the solution" Sam whispers.  
"Hold fire, Sam, he's responding" Ed orders him softly before speaking to the subject again. "My name is Ed Lane. I'm with the Police Strategic Response Unit. Are you… are you Mr. Charles Martin?"  
"H-how do you know my name?" the subject asks, rattled.  
"It's what we do, Charles. We find out about things" Ed replies. "So, care to tell me what this is about?"  
The subject just looks at Ed, seemingly getting angry, pursing his lips and knitting his brows.  
"Okay, okay, I get it. I get it, you're angry" Ed tries again. "What… what about Robert? Could you at least tell me if he's alright over there? Cause he looks kinda scared, you know?"  
Charles Martin uncertainly shifts from one foot to another, looking at the boy. "You okay?" he asks, softly and the boy nods. "He's okay" he calls to Ed.  
"That's good, buddy, that's good" Ed responds and takes a short break. "He's quite a brave boy, don't you think? He's a brave and incredibly talented boy."  
Charles Martin looks at the boy again, giving him a tiny smile. "Yeah."  
"Did you know he likes to draw, buddy? Did you know that?" Ed asks and the subjects looks at him again. "He loves to draw. He draws every day. Everything he experienced. Everyone he's with. His… his room is full of those pictures, we saw them. We saw. And they are very nice, very nice." Ed takes a break and moves another step in the direction of the subject.  
"And you know what, buddy? You know what? He drew you, too. He drew you, too. And he… and he noticed that you're sad, buddy. He noticed. He drew you with a sad face in those pictures." Ed takes another break and another few steps forward.  
"So, we're all asking us… we're all asking us why. Why he draws you always so sad. And-and I believe Robert here wants to know as well. Why don't you… why don't you explain to all of us why you're so sad, Charles?" He moves another step forward, now only about seven metres away, watching closely.  
"No!" Charles Martin calls. "No!"  
"What is it, buddy? What is it? What are you so angry about?" Ed asks, pressing the matter.  
"It's… It's HER!" Charles calls. "It's her and her… and her _wife_!" He takes a step aside, seeming distressed and angry again. "They took him from me! They took him from me and… and they…" he stops, obviously thinking. "Do you know what they are, Ed Lane?" he asks, calmer, but with hate in his voice. "Do you know? _Lesbians!_ Homosexuals! Can you believe that?" he spits and rants on. "And they are raising MY! SON!"  
Ed shakes his head. "Charles. I know. I know. But he's her son, too. Sally. He's her son, too" he tries to calm the subject down.  
"HE IS MY SON!" he screams."I can't allow some _dikes_ to raise my son!"  
"_Deescalate, Eddie, you need to deescalate him!"_ Greg orders over radio. _"Decrease the pressure, focus on the kid, not on the mothers."  
_"Okay, buddy, okay" Ed tries again. "But look at him. Look at Robert. Please Charles, have a look." Ed moves another step forward. "He's a good kid. He's a brave kid. He's got a good life. He goes to school, has good grades and loves to draw. And he has two loving mothers, Charles." Ed takes another break. "Two loving mothers, who go with him to the playgrounds, who take him to the park. Two loving mothers, who read him bedtime stories and sing him into sleep every night. Who pick him up at school and play with him in the afternoon. Who cook him breakfast and lunch and dinner, and help him with his homework. Two mothers, who lovingly care for him when he is sad or ill. Two mothers who love him, instead of one." Ed hesitates a moment. "Look at him, Charles. Look at Robert, look closely. Does he seem unhappy in his life? Does he seem to think it is bad to have two mothers? I guess he doesn't. I know he doesn't. Because he loves his family. Because he loves his two mothers." Ed takes another step toward Charles. "Do you really have the heart to take him away from his family? Take him away from the family he loves? Look at him, buddy."  
Charles Martin looks at the boy again, seeming increasingly uncomfortable.  
"Charles. Did you know that Robert is ill?" Ed tries again. "Did you know that he has diabetes? He needs his medication. He needs his insulin." He takes a short break. "What do you say, Charles. Can we can bring Robert home, so he gets his medication?"  
After a few moments of silence the subject kneels down in front of the boy, placing his hands on his shoulders, looking at him.  
"I… I am sorry, sonny. I am sorry" he starts to cry, tears streaming down his eyes. "I just… I just wanted to protect you, you know that, don't you, sonny? You know that, don't you?" The boy nods and Charles Martin hugs him for a moment, then takes down his gun. "Go" he whispers and the boy starts running in my direction. I secure my weapon and put it away. Rushing a few steps forward, I swoop the boy him up into my arms, turning my back to the subject to further protect him and start walking towards the street, while Ed and the Team move in to take Charles Martin into custody.  
"Hostage secured."


	4. White doves fly free

**Chapter four – White doves fly free  
****Wednesday, 26th September, 2012**

"_A woman in a white dress abducted a male youth in a green Honda Civic at a highway gas station"_ Greg instructs us over the radio. I am sitting in the front seat of one of the black SUVs next to Sam, who is driving the car to our destination.  
"_Car has been found at a highway parking lot, only a few miles east of the gas station. Witnesses called the police as they noticed the car empty with a running engine and no one near. The car owner is Mr. Max Campbell. He claims his son Peter borrowed the car this morning. The possible victim, Peter Campbell, is a Caucasian male, blond hair, seventeen years of age, High School hockey player. The female subject is still unknown. The employee of the gas station states that she carries a shot gun. He describes her as dark haired Caucasian female, around twenty years of age. She was commanding, but appeared to be calm and kept smiling."  
_"That's not good" I tell Sam. "When she's that calm, she's either crazy or made her peace." Sam thoughtfully nods his head.  
"_Jules and I are driving to the gas station to speak with the witnesses and Mr. Campbell" _Greg continues. "_Spike, you take the truck and follow. Try to get as much out of the security footage as you can."  
_"_Aye, boss"_ Spike agrees.  
"_Eddie and the rest of you meet up at the parking lot where the car has been found and take a look around. They either went on by foot or switched cars. Let's keep the peace!"_

We drive onto the parking lot where the car is parked. It is a small lot right next to a highway, not frequently used. I can only see two wooden tables, no bathrooms, no restaurant or gas service. On the left side, the lot is surrounded by a forest, with fields and hilly ground on the other side. A second car is parked a few feet away from the green Honda. A couple is talking to some officers. While we get out of our SUVs, I see Ed coming up to us.  
"Nicki, you go talk to these witnesses" Ed instructs. "Leah is already having a look at the car. Sam, you're with me, we're going to search the perimeter."  
"Copy that" Sam and I echo and I rush over to the couple.  
"Nicholas Taylor, I'm with the Police, SRU" I introduce myself as the man offers me his hand in greeting. "William Medina, this is my wife. What's going on, officer?" he asks.  
"We are searching for the couple that owns this car" I point with my thumb over my shoulder to indicate the green Honda behind me. "Did you see them? Did you notice anything?"  
"No, not really. We just wanted to take a small smoking break. Got off the car and noticed that Honda over there, doors open and engine running and all. Called for police as we couldn't find the owner."  
"And there was nobody here, you could not see a person maybe running somewhere?" I inquire.  
"No, nothing" the man answers.  
"Was there another car around when you got here?" I tried to dig deeper, but I got the feeling that they really did not see a thing. The woman shakes her head to my questions. "Maybe another car left the lot as you came?" I try again.  
"No, nothing officer. There was no car, no people, no nothing. Just us and a left but running car." He impatiently replies.  
"Ok, thank you Sir. Please let this officer have your contact details, in case we have further questions." I nod at him and turn around to join up with Leah near the Honda.

"Boss, I found a mobile phone under the front seat. Seems to be the boy's phone." I hear Leah call out.  
"_That's good. Anything useful?"_ Ed asks over the radio.  
"A lot of texts and pictures." I watch over her shoulder as she skips through the texts.  
"Wait Leah, go back" I point at the display. "What was that?"  
"You cannot leave me, Pete. We are meant for each other, don't you see?" she reads. "There's more like that, going back a few days." She skips to the most recent ones.  
"One last time, Pete. Let us meet, one last time and I'll leave you alone forever." Leah opens the contact information. "Contact saved under the name Elly."  
"Boss?" I call over the radio.  
"_I got that, Nicki. Peter Campbell apparently had a friend named Elly Stuart. Mr. Campbell is not sure if she was his girlfriend, if so, they seem to have kept it secret. Maybe because of the difference in age"_ Greg replies._ "Miss Stuart is a college student, she lives in a dormitory. Jules is checking her room."  
_"Copy" I answer.  
"_One more thing to notice: Mr. Campbell says his son is about to finish High School. He got accepted into the same college on a Hockey scholarship"_ Greg adds.

"_Elisa Stuart" _Spike reports his findings. _"Twenty-one years of age, dark brown hair, green eyes. Her father left the family when she was seven, her mother took her own life only half a year later. No siblings or other relatives, father refused to take her. She was taken in by a children's home, downtown. Comes to a foster family four years later but has to leave them again after her foster father lost his job. Records say the family could not afford her any longer. Stays at the children's home until she's eighteen. No records after that, no criminal record."_ He stops for a short break. _"Guys, Elisa was the one who found the body of her mom after she came home from school. Her mom shot herself in the head with a shot gun… in the middle of the living room."  
_I am shocked upon those news. A seven year old girl who had just lost her father recently, comes home to find her own mothers body… or what's left of it after said mother had taken a shot gun to her brains. I shake my head to focus and lose the nauseous feeling that's starting to build up inside my stomach.  
"Left by her father, gruesomely left by her mother, left by her foster family… and now she's about to be left by the boy she loves. That's not good." Leah looks equally shocked as I am.  
"_It's even more than that" _Greg reports in. _"Mr. Campbell just confirmed that Peter has been adopted from the same children's home. He's been there during the same time Elisa was housed there."  
_"They probably have known each other back then" I comment.  
"_Agreed"_ Greg states.

I look up and see Sam and Ed coming back to meet us. Leah is now skimming through the phone's pictures. I look back on the display and follow the pictures. There are many and more pictures of different woman, posing for the camera, mostly smiling, sometimes nude.  
"He's got so many girls on here" Leah comments. "Sara, Monika, Carol, Anna, Natalina…" she reads and stops abruptly.  
"Guys, check your PDAs. I've send you a picture, it was on the phone, titled Elly" Leah states and I check my PDA to have a look. I see a beautiful young woman, long brown hair flowing around her shoulders in light waves, green eyes, smiling happily at the camera, the sunlight gently stroking her hair and body.  
"All in all, he's got a lot of photographs of thirteen or even more different girls on his phone. Including Elly" Leah reports. "Some of them naked pictures, some of them posed, some natural. Different backgrounds."  
"What's that?" Sam points out, looking at Elly's picture on his own PDA. "In the background, behind her. You see this window? The picture could've been taken in front of a log cabin."  
"_Good work, Sam"_ Greg replies.  
"Leah, anything useful on that phone to the location of the cabin?" Ed inquires, but Leah shakes her head. "Spike, give me a sketch on the surroundings. Are there log cabins inside the forest?"  
"_Yeah inside the forest, and around." _Spike replies._ "On this map there's five of them in walking distance to your location. Cabins are owned by… Marshall Blake. He runs a wellness and relaxation resort a few miles to the north. He additionally rents those cabins to customers who like to be surrounded only by nature for a while. Check your PDAs for a map."_I take a look at the map on my PDA as Spike talks to someone, probably on his telephone, but I can only make out muffled sounds before he continues. _"One of the cabins is permanently rented by a writer and therefore unavailable for other customers. That would be the one on the most northern edge of the forest. The other huts are currently free."  
_"Thank you Spike." Ed holds his PDA so we can all have a look. "Sam, Nicki, Alpha Team. You two have a look at those two cabins here" He points at one cabin that is located east of the forest on a field and another one, located on the north-eastern edge of the forest. "Leah and I are Bravo. We will check out the two cabins located inside the forest and have a look at the writer's cabin." Ed looks at us as we nod. "Let's go, let's go!"

Sam and I jog up the small hill that separates the parking lot from its surrounding area to the north, while Ed and Leah head for the forest to the west. I can make out one of the cabins in the distance and point it out to Sam. He nods and we take off in its direction.  
"_Guys"_ Jules reports over radio. _"Elisa left a suicide message on her bed. She apologizes for being a disappointment. And she apologizes to Mr. and Mrs. Campbell for taking Peter with her."_ Jules pauses. _"She states that she cannot go on without him, but she also cannot leave him behind. That's it, mostly."  
_"_Copy that, Jules."_ Greg replies.  
"_Her part of the room is neat. There's no waste, no trash, her bed is neatly made. All her belongings are tidily arrange on her desk and shelf. Same inside her wardrobe. Regarding her roommate, she was never this organized before."  
_"_She's serious about it."_ Ed comments._ "Trying not to leave much trouble behind for others, trying to make it easy to clear out her belongings."_

Sam and I arrive at the first cabin. We take a short walk around, but all curtains are drawn, so we cannot look inside. We hear no sound from inside. Sam goes into position on the left side of the door as I grab the handle. He nods and I try to open the door. Locked. I signal Sam that I am about to break it down. He nods again and I stomp my right foot against the door. The door swings open and I take a step back as Sam rushes inside.  
"SRU! ON THE GROUND!" he shouts.  
I quickly rush inside right after him, but the main room is empty. We speedily check the bathroom and bedroom, also empty, no sign of Elisa or Peter. We leave the cabin and run up to check the other one.  
"Cabin one empty" I report to Ed while running.  
"_Copy that. Same here"_ Ed replies.

As we round the hill, we see Elisa sitting in front of the other cabin. It could almost be a peaceful view, seeing her in her white dress, sitting cross-legged, stroking the hair of Peter, whose head is lying in her lap. Her eyes are closed, her face is lifted up, and the sun is dancing on her skin. I would be a peaceful picture, if not for the shot gun she carefully holds in her right hand.  
"Ed, we found her!" I report.  
"_Copy that, we're on our way. Be careful!"_ Ed replies.  
"_Eddie, what's your ETA?"_ I hear Greg asking.  
"_Minutes, boss"_ Ed replies.  
"_Sam? Nick?"_ Greg asks.  
"I'm not so sure 'bout this, boss" Sam shakes his head beside me.  
_"Okay, Nick, I want you to conduct the negotiations. Sam, you're Sierra" _Greg orders.  
"I… I think can do that" I confirm, taking a deep breath. "I can do it."  
"_Just remember, she's suicidal, got nothing to lose. Her world revolves around Peter at the moment. Don't let her lose that last bit of good sense. I'll be here, I'll be your second. Connect, respect, protect. You can do this."_ Greg reassures me.  
"Copy that, boss." I look at Sam, who nods at me, aiming his gun at Elisa.

"Elisa Stuart!" I shout up to her and take a few more steps in her directions, until we are only a few metres away. She looks at me, first surprised but then she smiles. It makes me queasy again, seeing her smiling so calmly.  
"Elisa Stuart, my name is Nicholas Taylor. I'm with the Police, Strategic Response Unit. Is everything okay up there?" I ask her, lowering my weapon.  
"It is okay, Nicholas. We are alright. You can go home, now." She smiles reassuringly.  
"What about Peter? Is he alright, too? Can you check that for me, please?" I ask her carefully.  
"He sleeps. You need to be careful, Nicholas. Do not wake him up!" She looks down at the peaceful face of Peter, stroking his hair again. "He looks so cute when he's sleeping."  
"_Is that boy still alive?"_ Greg inquires.  
"We don't know, boss. He's motionless, but no injury that I can see" Sam replies in hushed tones. "She wanted to end it the way her mother did, that's what the shotgun's for, but no signs she already used it on him. It could be the boy's really just sleeping right now. Maybe she gave him something."  
"Elisa? Look at me, Elisa" I try again. "Can you wake Peter up, please? I need to talk to him, too. Can you do that?"  
"No" she answers, but Peter stirs.  
"I am wide awake, officer. I'm ok."  
"Ok, Peter, thank you for letting me know" I call out to him. "Stay right where you are, buddy. Everything's alright. Just stay calm."  
"_We're almost there, seconds away" _Ed lets us know._"Sam?"  
_"I've got the solution" Sam replies beside me.  
"_Go for it, as soon as she's trying to use that gun"_ Ed orders.  
Elisa strokes Peters head again. "Shush" she tells him. "Go back to sleep, baby. Shush." She looks up at me, suddenly angry. "See? You woke him up! Why did you do that?" Tears start running down her cheeks as she looks me right into the eye. "Why would he leave me, Nicholas? All I wanted was to be happy! Why would he leave me?" she cries and falls silent for a moment. "He got himself a new girlfriend." She calmly states and hangs her head again.  
"Elisa, listen to me" I start, taking a careful step into her direction, but she interrupts.  
"NO! I am _DONE_ listening. I don't want to _listen_ anymore!" She looks down at Peter and instantly seems calmer. I can see Ed and Leah emerging from the forest at the other side of the cabin.  
"I just want to go home…" Elisa whispers, still looking down at Peter, stroking his head.  
"Alright. Alright, Elisa" I try again. "Tell me about your home, Elisa." Slowly, Sam and I step closer. She is too calm. Too unresponsive. That's not a good sign. Not good at all.  
"_Nick, be careful. She's got nothing to lose, everyone always left her, including Peter. She feels betrayed and alone. Step careful."_ Greg advises me.  
"Elisa." Sam and I take another step in her direction. "Elly" I call again, remembering the nickname from Peter's phone. She stops stroking Peters head for a moment as she hears me calling her by her nickname and looks up. "He was the only one who ever called me Elly, did you know?" Tears are still streaming down her face, but she is smiling. I know I need to say something, something to connect with her, anything! But there's nothing I can think of that would fit this situation, so I just wait for her to continue.

"I'm tired, Nicholas. I'm really tired." She tells me, exchanging her smile for a worn out look. "I only want to go home. I want to be free."  
"Alright, Elisa" I search for words. "Let's take a rest then, ok? Let's go and take a rest." I take a deep breath. I can do this.  
"Elisa" I start. "Elly. You love Peter, don't you? I can clearly see that you love him." She nods and smiles down at Peter, whose head is still lying in her lap.  
"I know. I know. And I am pretty sure he loves you too, right?" I hesitate, trying the only thing I am able to think of at the moment. "I mean, you've known each other since you were kids, am I right? He'll always love you, Elisa. You mean something to him. Something way more than just being his lover." I have to swallow as I watch Elisa's reaction to my words. She looks at me, puzzled.  
"You know what that is, Elly?" She slowly shakes his head, looking at me in wonder.  
"You're his sister. You're family. That's far more worth than being a lover." I stop to listen to Greg on the radio.  
_"Don't step too far there, Nicki. All the family she knew so far has left her."_ I nod in agreement, even though Greg clearly is not able to see it, and take another step towards Elisa. He's right. I need a different approach, family bonds are the wrong thing right now.  
"Still got the solution" Sam whispers behind me.  
"Elly." I take another step. "You've been his best friend when the both of you were left alone in that children's home, were you not? You've been there for him as well as he's been there for you. There's nobody that can take that away from you, you know?" I take another step in her direction. I'm now only a few metres away from her.  
"Elly." She still looks at me questioningly. "You two will always have that one special connection between you, whether you are lovers or friends." I am searching her face for a reaction, but she just looks at me. I notice she's clutching her weapon a bit harder than before. "You know that, don't you, Elly?" I ask further and take another step. I can almost reach her now.  
"Boss?" I whisper, asking for help.  
"_You're doing fine, Nicki" _Greg reassures me. _"Try to let her see what Peter will lose."  
_"What about Peter, Elly? What about him?" I ask her, following Greg's advice. "He's seventeen, Elly. He's almost still a kid." I take a short break to think this through before I go on.  
"He still has his whole life in front of him. He's going to graduate from High School this year, Elly. He's already got accepted into college. Elly, he accepted a scholarship of the same college you are studying at. He wanted to be with you, Elly. He wanted to be with you." I take a short break to give her some time to process what I said before I continue.  
"Elly, don't you think Peter deserves to graduate from High School? Don't you think he deserves to go to college, to move out from his parents and enjoy his life? I tell you what Elly, he does. He does deserve to have a chance at life. To choose his own path."  
"_Easy there"_ Greg quickly advices me via radio. _"Don't be too aggressive."  
_"And he needs you to be there, Elly." I try again, changing my path a bit. "He needs you to be there with him when he chooses. He needs you to be his friend, to help him achieve his dreams, as he can help you achieve your own dreams. Elly." I take a break for a moment, looking at her. She still sits there, clutching her weapon and staring at me with her big eyes, completely motionless now.  
"Elly. Peter deserves it to choose on his own, just like you deserve to choose. Just like you, Elly." I look at her, pleading, hoping she understands as I run out of words. "Please, Elly."  
"Nicholas." She softly says and smiles at me. "Thank you." She states calmly and I cannot help but feel a tad relieved.  
"Alright, Elly" I reply and hold out my hand. "Why don't you just take my hand and let me take you outta here?" I ask, still watching her closely. She drops her head to look at Peter and nods, still smiling. She strokes Peter's hair one last time and lets him sit up. She smiles at him as Ed moves in and quickly leads him away.  
"_Hostage secured"_ I hear Ed reporting to Greg as I smile up to Elisa.  
"Thank you, Elly. That was the right choice" I tell her and smile reassuringly. "Come on, Elly, let's get out of here." I urge her, still holing out my hand. "Put down that gun and take my hand, Elly. Come on. Put down that gun, please."

She flashes me a warm smile as she moves her shot gun up.  
"Elisa, DON'T!" I scream, reaching out for her, but it is too late, Elisa aims her gun at me. I hear a shot and see her slowly sinking to the side as Sam's bullet hits home. I rush forward, taking the shot gun out of her hands and catch her before she hits the ground. "Elisa?" I feel for a pulse and desperately try to cover the wound in her chest, getting my hands and clothes full of her blood. For a short moment she looks straight at me, smiling one last time, before the life fades out of her eyes and all that I am left with is that peaceful look on her still smiling face.  
"I am sorry" I quietly tell her body. "I am so sorry I could not help you."

* * *

The debriefing back at HQ is painful. I feel terrible for the death of that girl Elisa. She was so young, she was so beautiful, and yet it seemed as if she never knew anything other than the pain of loss. I sigh, as I sink further down in my chair, feeling miserable all around. I did not pay as much attention to the debriefing session as I probably should have. As soon as Greg closes the meeting and I start to get up, he holds me back.  
"Stay" he orders me quietly and we wait until the others clear the room. Spike pats my shoulder and offers me a caring smile as he goes outside and downstairs to shower and change. I am still sitting in my chair, playing with a pen and staring dully at the table before me as Greg finally speaks again.  
"You doing ok?" he asks.  
I put the pen down, not really sure about my answer.  
"I don't know" I eventually tell him. "I mean…" I hesitate and think about it, still staring at the table in front of me. Am I doing ok? I sigh. "I really don't know."  
"It doesn't get any easier, buddy. We don't get to save everyone all the time, you know that. You need to come to terms with who you are and what you want to be at peace with it" Greg tries to comfort me. "Just do your best, that's all you can do."  
"I know Sarge, I know. It's just…" I thoughtfully look up at him. "When I applied for SRU, I wanted to make a difference. I've seen so much death in Homicide, so much loss and waste. It doesn't get easier, I know that. I do. That's fine. It's just… I thought I really connected with her, you know? I thought I got through to her, I wanted it so bad." I fall silent, remembering the peaceful look upon her inanimate face. "I guess I should've known, she was too calm from the beginning." I sigh again. "It was a long day, is all. It's going to be fine, Sarge. Really."  
"You did a good job today. You did nothing wrong." Greg moves to sit down on the table beside me and pats my shoulder.  
"Thank you, Sarge" I tell him. I get out of my chair as he nods, leaving the briefing room to finally get that shower I yearn for.

* * *

Coming home is a relief. I feel worn out, empty and kind of alone. I go inside and kick my sneakers in the direction of our shoe rack, followed by my jacket and the backpack I use to carry around. I just leave everything lying on the floor right where it drops. I don't really have the energy to care right now.  
"Anne?" I call my roommate, Anne Carols. We're sharing this flat since we both went to college, years ago. Feels like an eternity since we moved here. The flat is located at the fifth floor of a modern building, two bedrooms, one big bathroom with a shower tub, and one smaller bathroom for guests. A small corridor leading from the front door to the large living room with adjoined kitchen, only separated by a small step and an island counter. Five barstools stand in front of the counter, facing the kitchen, but therefore we don't have a dining table.  
"Annie, you home?" I call again. No answer. Damn, I could really use some company today. Anne probably hasn't even been home all day.  
I sigh and wander into the living room to turn the music on, setting the volume on a high level. I go to my bedroom to change into some more comfortable jogging pants, also getting rid of my shirt and socks, as well as freeing my hair from the tie, letting it fall loosely into my face.  
I wander back to the living room, from which I access the open kitchen area. I take a look into the fridge, only to be disappointed by its contents. A bag of milk, old cheese and some bottled beer. I didn't expect anything else in truth, as our fridge is empty most of the time. I close the door again and take a quick look at the menu cards of the various home delivery services we keep sticking to the fridge door with small magnets. Some of those flyers actually are several years old and no longer up-to-date. I find what I am looking for, one of my favourite pizza delivery services, and scan through its offers while slowly walking back to get my phone. As I mute the music to give the delivery service a call, the doorbell rings, startling me. I jump a little, caught by surprise because I did not at all expect visitors and rush to answer the door.  
"_Hey, it's me. It's Spike!"_ I hear him shouting at the intercom. _"Lemme up?"  
_"Hey, 'course, come in. It's the fifth floor" I answer and press the buzzer.  
I leave the door open, trusting Spike to find the way into the living room on his own and go inside to turn the music back on, but on an acceptable volume.  
"Beer?" I ask as I hear him at the door and walk into the kitchen to get two bottles.  
"Nice apartment" he comments as he enters. "I didn't know what you like, so I…" he faltered. "…brought pepperoni pizza…" He looks at me, slightly insecure. "Is this a bad time?" he finally asks as I hand him a bottle of beer. I unconsciously push a loose strand of hair out of my eyes as I need a moment to realize what he means: I'm still half naked.  
"Ah." Blushing, I place my beer on the kitchen counter and rush into my bedroom to get a shirt at least. "Have a seat, make yourself at home, I'll be right back!" I call over my shoulder. I quickly grab the first clean shirt I can reach and put it on before returning to the living room, this time at a slower pace. Spike is sitting at the kitchen counter, the large pizza box placed in front of him, sipping his beer while looking around.  
"Sorry. Didn't expect any visitors." I tell him as I approach, brushing the loose hair from my face as I talk.  
"Nah, no problem. Just tell me if you'd rather be alone or such." He looks at me and I shake my head, taking a sip of my beer. "So" he casually points at the box in front of him. "I brought pizza. Figured you might want to hang out and watch TV or something?"  
"Thank you" I genuinely smile at him. I am really not in the mood to be alone tonight.  
"Alright. So you wanna watch TV?" I ask.  
"Yeah, why not?" he gets up from the bar stool, grabs the pizza and follows me as I walk to the couch, turning off the music as I pass by the stereo. I motion for him to take a seat and sit down crossed-legged on my favourite spot on the left side of the small, comfortable sofa. Spike takes a seat next to me and places the pizza box on the coffee table.  
"So." He sighs. "What are we gonna watch?" he asks as he opens the pizza box and helps himself to a large piece of pepperoni pizza.  
Leaning back in the cushions, I start zapping the TV programmes until I find a sitcom that seems alright.  
"Thanks for the pizza, Spike. I really appreciate it." I smile at him and grab a piece. He smiles back and we eat together in silence for a while, watching the TV show. Even though we don't speak much, I really enjoy him being here. He's nice to be around.

"You doing alright, Nicki?" Spike asks after a while, looking at me with a somewhat concerned look on his face.  
"Yeah." I turn my head to face him. "It was rough, but I'll be alright. Don't worry."  
"Ah, well, I don't." he reassures me. "I guess you've seen much of a shitload in Homicide. Just want you to know that I'll be always there if you need to talk." Flashing a bright smile, he adds "You know, you looked like crap today."  
I laugh, brushing a strand of my hair behind my ear. "Yeah, thanks for raising my self-esteem, buddy. I knew I could count on you" I reply jokingly and wink at him, grabbing another slice of pizza.  
"Always at your service" he grins back and raises his beer.

"So, tell me about you" Spike demands. We've been sitting and talking for a while now, the TV still playing random shows in the background. Talking about work at the SRU, about Homicide, about the other members of Team One. I've turned my seating position around a bit, still sitting cross-legged but facing him, using the armrest of the sofa as a backrest, and playing with a cushion in my lap. Spike too seems to get comfortable on my sofa. He's put his legs up, the left one angled and leaning on the backrest of the sofa, while the other one is stretched out, almost touching my knees, his body facing me as we talk.  
"Huh. What do you wanna know?" I ask, casually playing with my hair. "My favourite color is blue, I like going to movies and reading, and I love music and my bicycle." I grin as I look him in the eyes.  
"Nah, I was thinking 'bout more personal stuff, you know?" he grins back. "Like, what was your dream job when you were a kid or how did you get your first kiss. That kind of stuff."  
I laugh out loud. "You wanna know 'bout my first kiss?" I ask him, taking a sip of my beer. We've each opened the second bottle by now.  
"Yeah, why not?" Spike grins, playing with the rim of his jeans. "Trying to get to know you, buddy."  
"Alright, alright. Let's see" I think about it for a short time. "First kiss was in fourth grade. I was nine years old, she was a classmate. I initiated it on a dare from a friend. Went up to her in the middle of a break and just kissed her in front of all of her friends and the rest of the school." I laugh at the memory.  
"So you're telling me you were a badass lady-killer since you've been nine?" Spike laughs heartily.  
"She pushed me down the stairs after school for it." I grin and shake my head. "Broke my arm, but never told my parents or teachers that it was her fault." I stop a moment to take another sip of my beer and look at his smiling face."So, what about you?"  
"First kiss? Not spectacular at all. Happened when I was six, it was a two years elder distant cousin on the birthday party of my grandma. I bet there are still photographs of it lying around somewhere." He takes a sip of his beer and looks at me. "You got family?" he asks.  
"Yeah, well." I shrug my shoulders and return to playing with my hair absentmindedly, looking at my feet. "Well, my dad's not talked to me in years, he still holds an old grudge. But I go out on a coffee with my mom from time to time."  
"What kind of grudge?" Spike asks interested.  
"Better not tell." I shrug. "So" I comb my fingers through my hair as I look up again. Wanting to urgently change the subject, I grin at him and ask "What about that nickname of yours?"  
"Um, yeah, well, my hair used to be uh…" He combs the fingers of both of his hands in his hair and gestures upwards. "You know, spikey." He laughs as he finishes and I join in.

"Honey, I'm home!" I hear Anne calling as she enters our flat. "You there?"  
"Living room" I call back without even turning around. "Don't be surprised, I got a friend from work over." I don't care at all when she calls me all kinds of sweetheart names. Even though we've only ever been friends, she does it all the time. I'm used to it by now.  
I hear her approach and turn my head to greet her with a smile.  
"Hey there" she smiles at Spike and offers her hand in greeting. "I'm Anne."  
"Spike" he smiles back. "Very nice to meet you." He musters her a bit and grinningly winks at me as she turns to get herself a beer, too. I guess he's right, Annie is a very attractive woman. Long red hair, appealing face, and her lean body's got curves on all the right places. "You guys need a refill?" she asks from the kitchen. I look at Spike, but he shakes his head.  
"We're good" I tell her.  
"So." Anne lounges herself in an armchair standing next to Spike and looks at him. "You staying overnight?" she asks, winking.  
I start coughing as I almost choked on my beer. "Anne!" I gasp, shocked, and Spike pats my back. Anne watches and waits until I calm down.  
"Where did you meet again?" she asks, sceptically.  
"We're teammates at the SRU" Spike replies before I have a chance to answer and thankfully Anne seems to get the hint.  
"Ah, ok. Sorry, didn't get that earlier" she explains and throws me an apologetic look.  
I glance at Spike, who seemed a bit puzzled, but did not question us further. If I am lucky, he possibly thinks Anne started flirting with him. I would not mind if she did, but I always kept it a secret at my workplaces that I am into men, and I don't plan to start outing me now. I can't risk letting her slip my secret. It would only complicate everything.  
Spike takes a look at his watch and slowly stands up from the sofa. "It's getting late. I better head home."  
"Sure" I reply as I, too, get up. I watch as Spike says his goodbyes to Anne and walk him to the door.  
"Thanks again, man. I needed that" I tell him, leaning on the wall, as I watch him putting on his shoes.  
"Any time" he replies, looking up. "Next time, you're buying" he smiles and I open the door to let him out. "See you tomorrow" he calls over his shoulder as he leaves.  
"Tomorrow" I agree and close the door.


	5. Casino showdown

**Chapter five – Casino showdown  
****Sunday, 30th September, 2012**

I wake up to the sun shining directly into my face and turn around, still half asleep, trying to avoid the bright spot of sunlight, that's shining directly onto my pillow. I toss and turn, trying to go back to sleep, hiding my head under the covers, but it's no good. Yawning, I stretch out to reach the alarm clock that's lying on my bedside table and pick it up, opening my eyes just wide enough to make out the digits that show up at the display. Eight-twenty-three a.m. I sigh and toss the clock off the bed, turning around until I rest on my back, wiping the sleep out of my eyes and rubbing my face with both hands, yawning. I took a day off from work today, so I am not in a hurry. I slowly push my covers to the side and sit up, feet dangling down the side of my bed. I yawn again as I pick up the alarm clock from the floor and put it back onto the bedside table. Standing up, I scratch the back of my head, my messy hair falling loosely around my face as I scan the room for a shirt. I quickly grab one from the floor and put it on, leaving my bedroom and wander to the kitchen, to get some coffee.

"Good morning, sweetheart" Anne chimes as she steps out of the bathroom, fully dressed in jeans and sweatshirt, working a towel through her still wet hair.  
"Mornin'" I answer. "Up so soon?" It is unusual for her to be up before twelve on a weekend. I get two mugs and pour coffee for the both of us. Both with milk, two pieces of sugar for Anne.  
"Meeting up with Sharon for breakfast in an hour" she nods, taking her coffee mug out of my hands and sits down at the counter. I lean back and rest my back at the countertop next to the fridge, facing her. "Want to join in?" she asks.  
"Nah, I'm good" I decline and drink my coffee. Sharon is a friend of us, a nice girl, but way too talkative sometimes, if you ask me. "I'm going to take my bike for a good, long ride, today" I state and watch Anne drinking her coffee, considering the route I could take. "Guess I'll bring a good book and go to the park or something." I shrug, combing my hair back from my face with my hand.  
Dunno, I'll see."  
Anne nods and smiles at me. "Nicki, uh, don't get me wrong…" she starts and I look up at her, confused.  
"I am sorry about that night, uh, you know." She looks a bit uncomfortable, searching for words. Of course I know what she's talking about. We didn't have a chance to talk since the day Spike was over, just a few days back.  
"You know, assuming that this… uh, Spike?" She looks at me questioningly and continues as I nod. "That Spike was a flirt. I did not get that he was a teammate of yours. Sorry." She pauses. "I know we have an agreement about not outing you. I hope it didn't cause any trouble" she finishes, playing with her mug and waiting for me to say something.  
I take my time answering her. Spike did not mention it at all, so I assume he got the impression Anne was flirting with him or simply did not take it seriously.  
"It's ok, no harm done I guess. Just… just don't assume this ever again, alright?" I tell her. "Pretty please" I add and smile at her. Anne nods and smiles back at me.  
"I promise to be a good girl from now on" she grins, takes another mouthful of coffee and stands up. "Gotta get ready." She places her mug on the counter, hurries through the living room and vanishes behind her bedroom door.  
I turn around to refill my own mug and slowly wander to the sofa, slumping down on my favourite spot, stretching out my legs. As I look at the other side of the couch, my thoughts wander again to the night Spike was over and I smile. It was really nice having him here. It was great to just sit down and chat, he's so easy to be around. And quite easy to look at, too, I can't help but think, my heart suddenly skipping a beat.  
"Gods" I whisper and rub my hands over my face as I realize where my thoughts start to go and mentally slap myself. I cannot allow myself having a crush on my teammates, regardless of how good looking and nice they are. I groan and sit up, forcing my thoughts in another direction as I make my way to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

* * *

I drive my bike through the park, music blasting in my ears, the sun shining on my face. I smile at the beautiful day and work the pedals even faster, going almost at a racing speed. As I approach the great lake in the middle of the park I slow down, coming to a complete halt in front of some benches at the lakeside. This was always one of my favourite spots to hang out with friends, back when I was still in High School. I haven't been here in years. Smiling at the old memories I attempt to drive on, planning on rounding the lake, but the emergency beeper rings. I take it out and have a look. Ten-thirty-three.  
"Shit." I quickly unbag my cellphone and call Greg.  
"Boss, its Nick. I'm on my way to…"  
_"Forget that"_ he interrupts me. _"Come directly to the Downtown Casino, we'll see you there."_ He hangs up and I slip my cellphone into my pocket, turn my bike and start driving at high speed. It's just a few blocks away, I should be there in a few.

* * *

I approach the road block in front of the casino. "Nicholas Taylor, SRU" I take out my badge for the officer to see and he waves me through. The road in front of the casino is completely locked up. Both sides having road blocks composed of police cars and barriers. On the road facing the front of the casino several other police cars are blocking the road and the view from inside. Police officers holding the perimeter all around. The black SUVs as well as the Command Truck of the SRU are parked on the street slightly to the left of the building.  
Greg beckons me over as soon as he sees me approaching the command post.  
"Gear up, buddy, and meet me in the truck" he orders and I do as I am told, as he moves inside. I park my bike next to one of the SUVs and tie my hair into a ponytail as good as I am able to. I open the trunk of the SUV and take out some gear. I don a vest over my jeans and sweatshirt, install an earpiece and grab some weapons from the locker. I take a look around as I switch the radio on and hear Eddie giving instructions.  
_"…air shaft's over here going right into the main room. Go get us eyes. Do it quick."  
_I see Ed, Sam and Leah standing nearby, bending over the front lid of an SUV, and presumably studying the layout of the casino. Leah and Sam quickly start to jog around the corner, Sam nodding a greeting as he sees me. Jules is standing a few metres away, talking to some witnesses. I get into the truck to meet up with Greg.  
"…where we lost our eyes" Spike explains to Greg as I enter, showing surveillance footage.  
"But before that, we have this" Spike zooms in on a picture, showing the still-frame of a man, pointing a handgun directly up to the camera, just about to shoot.  
"Hey Nicki" Spike turns to me, greeting me with a warm smile as I join them and continues. "Subject confirmed as John Collins, former Security Guard at the Casino, so he knows the place. Fired six years ago due to sexually harassing his female colleagues. From what I can tell from the footage we have, he seems to be the boss in all this." He switches to another file on the computer and goes on. "John Collins, thirty-nine, we've got quite the record about him. Smaller robberies, theft, violence, illicit gun possession, sexual harassment and assault. Beside that he's been the subject in a threefold murder case in two-thousand-five, but it could not be proved. Has been sent to jail a few times, he's out on probation for nine month now."  
"Ok, thank you Spike." Greg turns to me. "Nick, sorry to muck up your free day, but we've got quite the situation here. Seven subjects, including John Collins, stormed the Casino about twenty minutes ago, all of them considered armed and dangerous. They hit two Officers from the first responding unit, one of them was killed on spot. They also destroyed the CCTV inside, Sam and Leah are currently working on eyes. We've got no clue what they want and they start shooting as soon as someone attempts to talk to them." He looks at me, waiting for me to say something.  
"So we go in all tactical." I consider the options from what I know so far. One-storied building, six metres tall, flat roof, large main hall, packed with slot machines and gambling tables, a lot of places to find cover and hide. Good for us, but also good for the bad boys. "Best take a back door in, or the roof, depending on the layout. Take some flash bangs, maybe. Hostages? Weapons?" I ask.  
"One Hostage, Mr. Barry Wilder, owner of the Casino. Robbers used machine guns and pistols" Greg informed me. "They opened fire as soon as they came in, but did not care about the casino guests. Some could get out unharmed, Jules is currently talking to them and the employees, but we counted fourteen casualties, caught in the crossfire, before they took out the cameras."  
"As long as they have a hostage, stealth is best" I continue, nodding at the intel Greg just gave me. "That Collins is probably holding a grudge against his former employer and won't be too friendly. My guess is, he wants to get his hands on the money and needs Mr. Wilder to open the vault."  
"Agreed" Greg nods.  
_"Sam, what's with the eyes?"_ We hear Ed asking over the radio.  
_"Seconds away"_ Sam answers. _"You should have a picture… now."  
_I turn to the monitor in front of Spike to have a look. They installed a camera through an air vent in the roof, giving us a good look at the main casino room. I can see a rectangular room with two rows of gambling machines on the north and south side outer walls; blackjack, poker and roulette tables neatly arranged around a large round bar in the middle of the room. On the far side of the room, a stage has been installed. Two doors, one on each side of the stage indicate a backstage area. Next to the entrance I can make out a wardrobe area on both sides of the doors. The main entrance is designed like a tunnel, a wall parallel to the street forcing the guests split up to go around, emerging on both sides of the main entrance, facing the wardrobes first. Two subjects have taken positions on each side of the entrance door, having found cover behind some knocked over tables, a third subject is crouching behind the round bar. Throughout the room motionless bodies are lying on the floor, both, employees and guests from the look of it.  
"Let's meet up with Ed." Greg gets up and starts to leave the truck. "You too, Spike. He'll need every man."  
Spike grabs his gear and we both go outside to join with the rest of the team, the same moment as Sam and Leah come back. We all bend over the floor plans of the casino, watching the camera broadcast on the laptop.  
"Ok, guys" Ed starts his briefing. "Main entrance is on the west, there's backstage areas on the east side that we don't have eyes in. According to this plan there's also a cellar…" Ed points everything out on the map.  
"Employees say the cellar holds a huge vault" Jules gives us some more intel. "Once in a week pick-up of the winnings, scheduled for tomorrow morning."  
"So there's a huge sum of money in that vault right now, waiting to be picked up" Spike comments.  
"Exactly" Ed takes a look at Jules and goes on. "Jules, you're Sierra One. I need you to find a good place overlooking the backdoor as well as the rooftop, in case anybody comes out."  
"Copy" Jules replies and leaves to find a spot.  
"I know we don't have eyes in the back" Ed continues. "But a front door approach could be too dangerous. There's two subjects taking positions here and here" he points them out on the map "and one behind the bar." He points again. "No sign of the other four subjects or the hostage."  
He points at a small entrance on the back side of the casino. "This is the service entrance and only other regular entrance so far. There are probably one or two subjects stationed here, waiting for us to come in, so we don't risk that, it's too obvious. We make a stealth entry through the roof." He points to another point on the map, looking like another air shaft. "There's a small staircase leading up to the roof inside the building, as a fire escape, but it's only partly finished. The stairs to the roof are not included in the original layout, they are an additional build-in feature currently in the making" Ed states. "The stairs are leading to this room, directly connected to the corridor" he points again" just around the corner of the service entrance. Sam, Nick, you're Alpha Team. You go up the roof, enter the building through this shaft and carefully descent the newly build stairs to the corridor. Could be they don't know or don't care about this staircase, could be they do. Don't take any chances. Go careful and quiet. And keep in mind that the staircase is under construction. When you arrive here..." he points at the corner of the corridor facing the back entrance "...and our assumptions are correct and they have stationed guards here, use flash grenades and signal us. Spike, Leah and I are Bravo Team. We take position at the service entrance. We'll break up the door when the guards are surprised and indisposed by the flash and take them down quickly." He takes a short break before he continues.  
"We'll check out the stage and backstage area first, then split up again. Sam, Nick and Spike, you go and take care of the three guards in the main room. Leah and I will have a look at the cellar. If my assumption is right, we have three subjects in the main room, plus one or two subjects guarding the back door. That leaves us with two to three subjects down at the cellar." Ed reflects the situation. "We need to be careful, and we need to be quiet. We go in with one eye blind." He looks at us and nods. "Let's keep the peace, boys."

Sam and I quickly jog up to the fire escape on the southern side of the building and climb up until we are on top of the flat roof. We approach the trapdoor leading to the staircase Ed named. It is secured by a metal plate, carefully tightened to its base by some screws. There's no handle on the outside to open it, probably only meant to be opened from inside, so we take out our screwdrivers and work on creating an opening to the trapdoor.  
_"We're in position" _Ed reports over radio._ "Jules?"  
"In position" _she confirms. _"I have a clear look at the backdoor, and the roof."  
"Waiting for your go, Alpha Team."_ Ed lets us know.  
"We're seconds away from entering the building" I let Ed know.  
We carefully open the rooftop door and scout down the stairs. "Moving in" I softly report. The staircase looks unfinished but solid, and we slowly descent. The stairs have no handrail but the steps are all in place. We arrive safely at the base of the stairs without incident. Sam opens the door and carefully scouts into the corridor. He signals me that there's no one in sight and we quietly enter and approach the corner. Sam scouts around the edge, using an expendable mirror, while I watch the other side of the corridor.  
_Two subjects at the back door_ he signals me and I nod, typing a message into my PDA to let Ed know there's two of them. I put the PDA away, unbag some flash bangs and wait for Sam's signal. He nods and I throw the grenades around the corner at the subjects, quickly looking away again as Sam quietly tells Ed "Go". Ed forcefully opens the door, seconds after I threw the flash bangs, and we step around the corner soon after, taking the subjects by surprise. They have no choice but to surrender. We cuff the subjects and take them outside, Leah and Sam staying behind to secure the corridor.  
"Two subjects contained" Ed reports to Greg.  
_"Copy that, Eddie, pick up's on its way."  
_

After having the subjects picked up by some police officers, we again enter the building. Ed signals me and Sam to check the rooms of the right side of the corridor, while he and Spike carefully check the stage area on the right, Leah standing guard to have an eye on the staircase leading to the cellar. After having checked every single backstage room as well as the bathrooms on the far side of the corridor, we meet up again.  
"All clear" Sam reports quietly as Ed joins us.  
"Same here" Ed tells us, equally quiet. "Split up" he softly orders and Sam and I join up with Spike to take the main room. As Ed and Leah silently vanish down the stairs to the cellar, we cautiously walk down the corridor, turning right at the corner, coming to a halt at the door to the main casino hall. We carefully open the door to the casino hall a crack and have a look inside.  
"Boss?" I ask in a whisper. "What's the current position of the subjects in the main room?"  
_"Nothing changed. Two subjects by the door, one subject behind the bar"_ Greg answers.  
"Copy" I reply and carefully close the door to review the situation with the others.  
"I'll take the other door inside" Sam offers. "We'll move through the rows of gambling machines to the front door and…"  
_"Subject three moving positions"_ Greg interrupts him. _"Do you copy? Subject three is moving, he's aiming for the door left to the stage!"  
_"That's here" Spike concludes.  
"Move, move, move!" I order and we take cover around the corner, moving out of the way of the subject. Seconds after, the door opens and a man walks inside the corridor, opens another door to the left and goes in.  
"The bathroom?" Spike whispers, stunned. "He's robbing a casino and goes to the bathroom? Who the hell does that?"  
"That's our chance" I whisper back. "We need to take him out before he returns to the main room."  
"I'll do that" Sam confirms and moves to the edge, taking position.  
We only have to wait a few more moments until we hear the door opening again. Sam carefully scouts around the corner, waiting for the perfect moment. Then he darts forwards, hitting the subject hard on the head, carefully catching him as he drops. Spike and I, having followed close behind, carefully aim our weapons at the subject until he is stripped of his guns and safely cuffed. I quickly take off one of my gloves and kneel beside the subject to feel his pulse.  
"Subject contained" I report to Greg while putting my glove back on. "Sarge, we need a pickup. He's out cold but alive."  
_"Copy that, Nick"_ Greg replies.  
I nod at Sam. "Go, take your position at the second door. We'll move in through the rows of slot machines, quickly, before the other two in there decide he took too long." I tell them and Sam rushes away as Spike and I quietly move into position.  
_"We've got one subject contained on the lower level. Still got to get to that Collins-guy. Hostage situation ongoing"_ Ed quietly reports over radio.  
_"I'm in position_" Sam tells us and I slowly open the door to the casino. _"Moving in."  
_We rush inside, silently taking cover between the slot machines that are positioned side by side in two rows on the northern side of the room, trusting Sam to do the same on the other side of the room. We quietly check the pulse of the casualties we stumble upon, but none of them are alive.  
_"In position"_ Sam reports again and I reply "Same here." I look at Spike to confirm his state of readiness and he nods. "Moving in on one… two…" I start counting, but am interrupted by gunfire from the lower level. "Hold!" The two guards obviously hear the gunfire too, and they begin shifting restlessly, wondering what's up.  
"You heard that?" the guard next to Sam asks, insecure, leaving his post as he walks a few feet inside the room.  
"Yeah. Prob'ly John, pumping lead into that sucker." The second guard also leaves his cover and spits on the ground, seemingly not as unsettled as the first one. "You see, they'll be up here in no time and we'll get out."  
_"Eddie, status?"_ we hear Greg asking via radio.  
"Maybe we should check?" the first guard asks again, appearing even more nervous.  
"You crazy?" the second guard scolds. "He'll have our asses when we leave our posts." He returns to the window, watching the street.  
_"Ed! What's going on there?"_ Greg inquires again.  
_"Subject contained, hostage secured" _Ed reports.  
"Wait" the first guard suddenly seems to notice that something was up. "Where's Mario?"  
"Go!" I order and Sam and I simultaneously throw some flash bangs and move in.  
"SRU! POLICE! PUT YOUR WEAPONS ON THE GROUND! ON THE GROUND! DO IT NOW! HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD! DO IT NOW!"

The guard nearest to Spike and me spins around hectically, facing us and taking a shot, more by accident than on purpose. I was one second too late. The subject falls to the ground at the same time as Spike does.  
The other guard throws away his weapon as Sam steps in, aggressively pushing him to the ground. "Hands behind your back, do it now!" he orders.  
I rush to the subject on the floor and kick his weapon out of his reach.  
"Spike!" I call, running back and kneeling down next to him in a hurry.  
_"Spike, Nick, status!"_ Greg orders. _"What's going on, everyone alright?"  
_"Sarge, Spike's down…" I slowly report, slightly panicked, searching Spikes vest for a breach, feeling his pulse and trying to make out if he's ok. "Pulse is alright, but he…"  
"I-I'm ok" Spike interrupts, gasping and slowly opening his eyes, as he takes in a deep breath.  
"Gods…" I sigh, sitting back, an enormous feeling of relief flowing through my body.  
"Ouch" Spike groans and sits up a bit. "Took a hit in the vest, Sarge. I'm fine" he moans again. I smile down at him, looking him in the eyes, and for a brief, intense moment, the only thing in the world I am aware of are his deep, brown eyes that are staring directly into my own. He clears his throat, breaking eye contact and the moment's gone.  
"That'll be a huge bruise, tomorrow…" he softly jokes, smiling. I shake my head and get up to offer him my hand. He takes it, groaning, and I help him up, releasing his hand as soon as he stands on his own feet again. I turn and go to check on the subject I shot. I check his pulse, looking at Sam, who just cuffed the other subject and is now brusquely yanking him to his feet. Sam looks at me questioningly and I shake my head. He's dead.  
"Boss, we've got one subject contained, one dead" I finally report, straightening up and seeing Ed and Leah walking inside from the back with Mr. Collins and the hostage in tow. "Building's cleared."

* * *

After being interrogated by the SIU for the first time since joining Team One, I feel battered. I walk to the changing room to take a shower and change, wondering if my bike would still be standing in front of the Casino. It would be a shame if it would disappear. I see Ed sitting on a bench, putting on his shoes, and nod a greeting.  
"Hey buddy" he replies. "You doing ok?" he asks me and I nod again.  
"Just tired" I explain and rub my hand over my face. "These interviews are exhausting."  
"I know. But it's standard procedure, nothing we can change." He shrugs and looks at me. "The lawyer explained everything to you, right?"  
I sigh and sit down on a bench facing my locker. "Yeah."  
"We did everything right, buddy, don't worry 'bout that" he tries to reassure me.  
I release my hair out of the ponytail, combing both of my hands through it. "I know, Eddie." I look at him and smile. "I'm really just tired. Thanks for caring, though."  
"Alright." He smiles and gets up, taking his jacket and closing his locker. "I'll see you outside, hurry up" he calls as he leaves.  
Gathering my things, I notice my green backpack standing next to my locker and smile. Someone was nice enough to bring it here after I was taken away by the SIU. I undress and walk into the deserted bathroom to finally take a shower, wondering why Ed said he would see me outside. But he told me to hurry, so I do.  
As I walk out of the building I notice Ed talking to Sam and Spike next to the entrance and join them.  
"Hey Nicki!" Sam calls as he sees me walking up to them and the others turn around to face me.

"What's up?" I ask.  
"We're all going to have dinner, care to join in?" Sam wants to know.  
"We're not asking, Sam. We're taking him!" Ed scolds jokingly and smirks.  
I definitely am hungry, not having eating anything since this morning, and it would be very nice to spend the evening with the team, but I have to go and pick up my bike, assuming it's still standing at the casino.  
"Sorry, I need to get my bike before someone else does" I decline.  
"Don't worry 'bout that" Spike reassures me and points to the rack next to the entrance, where my bike stands waiting.  
"Nice!" I exclaim, happily smiling. "Thank you, guys!"  
"Knew it was yours so we took it home with us" he beams at me, proud to see the delight in my eyes.  
"So that's done, let's go, let's go!" Ed claps his hands eagerly. "The others are waiting and I'll starve if we don't go right now." He turns and moves into the direction of the SUV. I quickly rush back to lock my bike up against the rack before I turn around, running to catch up and jumping into the car on the backseat next to Spike.

We only drive a few minutes, before we arrive at a small Chinese restaurant. Ed parks the car and we get out. By now my stomach growls deeply; I didn't realize exactly how hungry I was. As we enter the building, we see the others sitting and talking at a large table in the middle of the restaurant. Jules, Leah and Greg are accompanied by an unfamiliar guy with short brown hair.  
"Wordy!" Ed is obviously very happy to see the guy. "Glad you could make it!" he exclaims and they share an intimate handshake.  
"Nicki" Ed turns to me and places his arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer to the table."This is Kevin Wordsworth" he explains. "One of the toughest S.O.B.s you'll ever meet. Worked with the team for years before he left us for guns 'n gangs." He grins at Wordy. "Nick's the new lad, be nice."  
I offer him my hand in greeting. "Hey, nice to meet you" I tell him and sit down next to Jules, watching Wordy greeting Spike and Sam with handshakes and claps on the back before they sit down, too. They've obviously known each other for quite a time.

Sitting between Jules and Ed, and directly across from Wordy Spike and Sam, I am right in the middle of everything. The guys joke, laugh and talk about almost everything, always including me in their conversations, never even giving me the slightest feeling of being left out. As I take another sip from my beer, listening to their stories, I can't help but think how lucky I am. I've only been a few weeks at the SRU now, but those guys are great.  
"So he sits him down…" Wordy tells me the story of Sam's first hot call with the SRU. "Ed sits him down with that 'this-is-the-most-important-thing-ever'-voice of his and shows him the map of the hospital. What did you say, Eddie?" he asks and turns to Ed.  
"I need you to do reverse entry, across this hallway to these doors here" Ed and Spike both recite at the same time, a wicked grin on their faces.  
"Yeah, that's what I meant! He tells him and shows him on the map, right?" Wordy laughs and smiles at Sam, taking a sip of his beer before he continues. "And Sam sits next to Eddie, being serious all over and listening, right? And Ed goes on: Now…"  
"…be careful because that is a big road. I want you to make an entry into this Timmy's – I'll have a double-double" Spike and Ed chime in, grinning devilishly as I laugh out loud. They've obviously told this story a thousand times and more.  
"Yeah, yeah, always funny" Sam scolds, but has to grin nonetheless.

We stay and eat, drink and talk for a few hours as the time flies by unnoticed. I have a really great time and don't want the evening to end. That's why I stay there, as one by one, the team leaves to head home until only Spike and I remain.  
"Guess it's time" Spike concludes after a while and we get up to pay our bills, waving our goodbyes as we leave the restaurant.  
"I need to get my bike" I tell Spike, indication the direction with my thumb. "What about you?"  
"Yeah, guess I'll walk you back to the station, my car's standing there" he replies and we take off.  
"How's your chest?" I ask him after a while of silent walking.  
"Hurting. Medics said I'll be having a bad bruise, but I'm in one piece, nothing broken" he explains.  
"That's good" I tell him, smiling. "Had me worried a bit back there" I add softly after a short break.  
"Yeah, sorry" he grins. "I'll try not to get into the line of fire anymore."  
I brush some strands of hair behind my ears and look at him, laughing. As he smiles back, our eyes lock for a moment, and my heart skips a beat. I quickly turn my gaze away and mentally curse myself a thousand times. No. No, no, no, no, no. No! I can't have that, I scold myself.  
"You alright?" Spike asks.  
"Yeah" I reply. "Tired."  
We arrive at the SRU Headquarters and I quickly unlock my bike.  
"Right" I straighten up and face Spike, combing my hair back out of my face with both hands. "Goodnight, see you tomorrow."  
"Yeah, see you tomorrow" he answers, smiling at me. As I attempt to drive off, he stops me.  
"Hey, uh" he hesitates. "Thank you. For, uh, I don't know. Caring?" He smiles genuinely and I can't help but smile back. My heart skips another beat and my pulse is going a tad faster. I can feel my blood rushing through my veins as Spike looks at me.  
"You're welcome, buddy" I tell him and quickly turn around, driving off. If I would stay with him only a little bit longer now, I'd risk doing or saying something really, really silly.


	6. The hardest part

**Chapter six – The hardest part  
Monday, 1st October, 2012**

It is already after midnight, when I finally arrive at home. I've been driving aimlessly through the streets for a while, thinking about today at the Casino, about the evening, about Spike, trying to clear my head. I lock my bike up inside the bike shed in front of the house and enter the building. Being way too tired to take the stairs today, I press the button to call the elevator and wait, thinking. I cannot allow myself to have a crush on Spike, I try to remind me for the umpteenth time. I simply can't. I finally enter the elevator and collapse against its rear wall, combing my fingers into my hair in a desperate gesture. Why is it always so difficult? I leave the elevator on the fifth floor, walk down the corridor and enter my apartment. The living room is deserted. Crap, I had hoped Anne was still up and about. I need to talk about everything. I need to get it off my chest. Carefully I walk to her bedroom and softly knock on her door.  
"Annie?" I call, quietly. "You awake?"  
After a few seconds I hear her answering. "I am now… Come in, hon."  
I enter her bedroom just as she switches on her bedside lamp. Blinking at me with a puzzled look, she asks "Something happened?"  
"Mh" I murmur, sitting down cross legged at the foot end of the bed, not really knowing where to start, and play with my loose hair. Anne just sits there, looking at me, patiently waiting for me to speak.  
"Dunno." I take a deep breath. "'s about Spike… I-I think I've a crush on him" I softly confess.  
"He's cute" she smiles, silently inviting me to tell her more about my problem.  
"Yeah" I hesitantly agree. "He's got those big brown eyes, always lookin' at me with that super sweet expression. And his smile... He's just so nice and caring and funny and… and all I want to do sometimes is to grab him close and ruffle his hair and… and…" I stop silent, combing my fingers through my hair.  
"And I just can't do that" I finish, looking at my best friend, feeling as if something very heavy is sitting upon me, crushing my chest. Anne sits at the head end of the bed, her back at the wall, hugging her angled legs and resting her chin on her knees. Her long, red hair is falling loosely around her body.  
"Why not?" she asks.  
"Why?" I repeat, slightly irritated. "You know exactly why… There are restrictions, there are rules and people watching closely. We are teammates. Not just some friends, Anne, we work together. I cannot have a crush on my teammate!" I sigh. "My team depends on me thinking with my head and not my heart during a mission" I try to explain to her and take a break. I brush my hair out of my face and look down. Anne just waits, knowing I'll soon continue.  
"He was shot today" I tell her after a few moments of silence, playing with the rim of my jeans. "No, nothing happened, hit the vest" I explain upon seeing her shocked expression. "We were on a call and the subject used his gun. Spike was standing right next to me. He went down without a sound, Anne, he just collapsed." I took a deep breath before continuing. "I guess I panicked a bit. I-I shot the subject Anne, but I did not at all care about it." I seriously look at her. "I did not care that I took a life, Anne." I take a break, letting my words sink in before I carry on. "All I could think about at that moment was Spike." I fall silent again and look down at my feet, playing with my hair. For a long time, we just sit there, both of us thinking.  
"What are your other teammates called?" Anne asks after some minutes, and I look up at her, surprised.  
"Uh, Greg, Eddie, Jules…" I start, but Anne interrupts me.  
"Ok. Let's say it was Jules. Let's just for a moment pretend that it had been Jules, who had been hit today and not Spike. Would you have reacted differently?" Anne asks seriously, looking me straight in the eyes. Would I have reacted differently if Jules would've been shot instead? I think deeply about the matter, chewing my lips as I do. If Jules would've been shot next to me… I care about Jules, too. I do, she is a great friend, she's nice and funny. I like her as much as I like the rest of the team. I would worry about her, too. I would check if she's alright, too. I would…  
"No" I conclude. "No, I would not act differently. I would do exactly as I did today."  
"And what about Greg? What about Eddie? What about any other member of the team? Would that make a difference to you?" Anne asks.  
"No, it would not" I answer truthfully. Of course it would not make a difference. I would always care first about my team and their safety, than any subject.  
"See?" Anne asks. "You're not the bad guy, just because you have a crush on someone, Nicki. You shot a man today, and I guess that is hard. But I believe he did not leave you with another choice, or did he? Your teammate was hurt and you needed to care for his safety. That's nothing to do with letting down your team. As long as you're human, there will always be the heart involved with the head. You are a caring human being. You just need to come to terms with it" Anne caringly scolds me. "You cannot do anything about the rules and restrictions, I know. But you don't need to feel bad about caring for anyone." She smiles and I know she's right. It is ok to care about people. It is ok to have a crush.  
"Thank you, Annie" I smile genuinely at her. "Sorry I kept you awake so long… sleep well." I hug her close and kiss her cheek.  
"You too, Nicki" she replies.  
As I stand up from Anne's bed to walk into my own room and finally get some sleep, I reach a decision. It is ok to have a crush on Spike. I will cherish the feeling, but I can't ever act on it.

* * *

The alarm clock rings at five-thirty a.m. as on any normal workday, violently jerking me out of my dreams. I grumble and grope around, searching for the noisy clock to shut it up. I sit up in my bed, resting my elbows on my thighs and letting my head fall into my hands, moaning. I was awake far too long... Although I went to bed directly after my conversation with Anne, I could not sleep for another hour or so. There had been far too many thoughts on my mind, and I tossed and turned around restlessly before finally being able to fall asleep, leaving me feeling tired and exhausted now.  
Yawning, I rub my face with both hands before getting up at last. I collect my training clothes from my wardrobe and put them on. I won't skip my morning routine just because I didn't get enough sleep. Trying to stifle another yawn with my forearm, I make my way to the kitchen and turn on the coffee maker, before I leave the house for my morning run.

* * *

"Morning" I greet as I enter the briefing room at the SRU and sit down in a chair across from Jules. So far the both of us are alone in the room, waiting for everyone else to assemble.  
"Good morning, Nicki" she replies, looking up. "Everything alright? You look tired."  
"Up too long, I guess. Had to think much about yesterday." I wearily comb my fingers through my hair.  
"'Bout the guy you shot?" she inquires.  
"Yeah. That. And everything else" I reply.  
"Taking a life is never easy, Nick" Greg joins in on our conversation, obviously having overheard what I said when he entered the room.  
"With what we do, death is a constant part of our everyday life. We try to prevent it, whenever possible, of course. That's why the SRU was established, that's why we're here, why you and me both sit here right now. But we always need to be ready to take that one shot every time when it's not." He pauses and looks at me intensely. "You did well, yesterday. You were very good and I am proud of having you in my team. And whenever you need to talk, we'll be here. We're a team, buddy. Just remember that" he concludes and sits back in his chair. The rest of the team had assembled in the meeting room while Greg talked, quietly taking their seats.  
"Yessir" I softly answer, slightly embarrassed by his sudden praise in front of everybody. "Thank you."

"Alright" Greg begins, looking around. We'll do some negotiation training, today." Greg shuffles through his papers, searching for a scenario he deems to be fitting.  
"Rookies first, so Nicki, you're taking the first turn as negotiator. Ed, Spike, I need you as subjects. The rest of you are hostages. Ed?" Greg hands him some papers. "You and Spike go take a look." Ed takes the papers and he and Spike leave the room, preparing their roles.  
"Nick, situation is as follows. You are called to a bank robbery. Two armed, unknown subjects have taken twenty-two hostages inside a bank. They came in shooting, killed the security guard as he was reaching for his gun. An employee pressed the emergency button. The bank is locked down, every door is electronically barred due to the emergency alarm and there's no way in or out, except the front doors. CCTV is running, but the subjects are masked." Ed and Spike enter the room again, taking their positions and arranging their hostages.  
"What do you do?" Greg asks, looking at me.  
"I try to make first contact to the subjects, calling the landline of the bank" I answer, feeling a little bit insecure.  
"The subjects ignore the telephone" Greg narrates.  
"I take my megaphone and try to persuade them into taking the call" I try again.  
"Do it" Greg orders and I take a paper from my desk, folding it to resemble a megaphone.  
"My name is Nicholas Taylor" I begin, holding the paper-megaphone to my mouth, addressing Ed. "I'm with the Police, Strategic Response Unit. I am calling the landline right now, please take the call and talk to me."  
"The subjects still ignore the telephone" Greg folds his arms across his chest, closely observing me.  
"My name is Nicholas Taylor, I'm with the Police, and right now, I am the only one that can give you what you want" I speak into my paper-megaphone again. "But I need to know if everything is ok in there, so please take the call and talk to me." I look at Greg, but he just observes without showing any emotion. Ed pretends to pick up a phone and holds his hand to his hear, spreading thumb and pinkie to resemble a telephone receiver.  
"Yes" he barks. I, too, pretend to have a phone in my hand, playing my part.  
"Thank you for taking the call, sir. My name is Nicholas Taylor, I'm with the SRU. Is everything ok in there? We heard gunfire."  
"I have hostages, Mr. Taylor. You say you can give me what I want? Good. Because I want money. A hundred 'n fifty grand, untagged and unnumbered. And I want a car. No tracer. I will leave the bank with my money and you won't stop me or the hostages die. Now, Mr. Taylor, what do you say?"  
"I will need to speak to my boss about what you said, Sir, but I will need some time to do that."  
"You have one hour." Ed pretends to hang up.

"Stop there, Nick." Greg interrupts. "What did you forget here?"  
"I, uh…" I hesitate.  
"Sam?" Greg asks.  
"The name, Sarge" Sam answers for me. "He forgot to ask the subject for his name."  
"Correct. You need to ask him for his name as soon as possible. He may not answer, but not asking until later on is a loss of time your team could need to find out who he is and to generate the profile. Rewind and repeat" Greg orders and Ed begins again.  
"Yes" he barks into his pretended telephone.  
"Thank you for answering the call, sir. My name is Nicholas Taylor, I'm with the SRU. May I ask for your name as well?" I try again.  
"My name is not of importance here. What is important, Mr. Taylor, is that I have hostages."  
"Sir, it is kind of unsettling for me not to know who I am dealing with. Are you sure you can't give me a name?" I retry.  
"I said it is not important!" Ed barks and points his pretended pistol at Jules. "Bang!" Jules pretends to fall to the ground, playing dead. "That woman is dead now, Mr. Taylor, and this is your fault. Now, as I have your complete attention, may we talk about what's necessary to get the other hostages out alive, or do you just don't care?"  
"Alright, Sir, alright. I hear you" I tell Ed.  
"Good. I want money, Mr. Taylor. A hundred 'n fifty grand, untagged and unnumbered. And I want a car. No tracer. You will disable the emergency lockdown, so I can get to my money and I will leave the bank in that car without you trying to stop me or the other hostages die, too."  
"I will need to speak to my boss about what you said, Sir, but I will need some time to do that."  
"You have one hour or _you_ kill another hostage." Ed pretends to hang up again.

"Okay" Greg interrupts again. "Why did he kill the woman?"  
"I was too persisting. I did not try to connect with him. I did not listen and respond, I tried to persuade him into giving me his name, even though he clearly did not want to tell me" I reflect and Greg nods.  
"Good, keep that in mind. Connect, respect, protect. That's important." He takes a short pause. "Let's take that scenario a little bit further. One hostage is dead, you don't have a name and you still don't know who you are dealing with. What next, Nick?"  
"I check with my team if there is any intel they could gather from the CCTV, witnesses and such" I suggest after thinking a moment.  
"CCTV shows subject number one, the guy you talked to on the phone, angrily rearranging the hostages so they block the view from door and window. Subject number two is pacing the floor. Witnesses tell you nothing new" Greg narrates and Ed and Spike play their parts.  
"I try to generate a first profile" I go on. "Subject number one seems to be the boss. He normally works alone, possibly having robbed smaller stores, or jewelleries perhaps, but never before robbed a bank."  
"What makes you think that?" Greg asks.  
"He came in shooting, not knowing about the emergency lockup. An experienced bank robber would do it stealthier, trying to avoid the lockup" I explain and Greg nods. "He's only ever saying 'I want', 'I will' and 'my money'. He never seems to recognize his partner."  
"Very good. Go on" Greg praises.  
"He's ruthless, kills to make a point, to get what he wants. Most likely not the first time he killed someone" I go on. "But there seems to be a particular motive for the robbery. He only wants to have exactly one-hundred-fifty grand, but a bank has much more money in the vault. They could take much more money with them as a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. There is a reason behind that sum" I conclude and Ed whistles approvingly.  
"What about subject number two?" Greg inquires.  
"Subject number two seems to be at discomfort with the situation. This is probably his first criminal act." I think a moment. "How did subject number two react as number one shot the woman? What did my team see at the CCTV?" I ask.  
"Shock" Greg tells me. "Subject number two was startled and clearly frightened."  
"Which seems to prove my first assumption about him. He's not used to killing. He's not comfortable with committing crimes like that" I reflect.  
"Good" Greg states. "You have a first profile now. What's your next approach?"  
I think about it a moment. "I'll call him a second time. Talk to him a bit, trying to be understanding, fishing for information" I suggest and Greg nods his approval.  
I pretend to call Ed and he takes the call. "What?" He barks.  
"This is Nicholas Taylor again, Sir. I just wanted to let you know that I've talked to my superiors about your request. They are working on it, but we need a bit more time."  
"No more time, Mr. Taylor. No more time. I'll have the money and the car in exactly 45 minutes or another hostage dies" Ed threatens.  
"We are working on it, Sir. We'll do the best we can." I hesitate a moment, not exactly knowing what I should say next, taking my time to think it through. "Sir, I wonder about something, do you think you could help me out a bit?" I try to be nice and sound caring.  
"What do you want?" Ed asks.  
"I was wondering about the hundred 'n fifty grand, Sir. Is there a specific reason you need so much money?" I ask.  
"That's nothing to do with you, Mr. Taylor!" Ed barks and hangs up.

"No" Greg interrupts, shaking his head. "You lost him there Nick, you made him even more angry. Try again."  
I clear my throat and rewind. "We are working on it, Sir. We'll do the best we can. But maybe we could show my bosses that you have some goodwill. Maybe we can release some of the hostages to show my bosses that you will keep your end of the bargain? What do you think, can you do that for me?" I try a different approach this time.  
"And why should I do that, Mr. Taylor?" Ed asks.  
"Because it will show my bosses that you are willing and trustworthy. That you will not start killing every single hostage as soon as you have what you want" I explain.  
Ed waits some moments before he answers me. "Okay. Okay, Mr. Taylor. I will show you some goodwill." He points at Sam and Leah with his pretended gun. "You two. Get up! Get to the front door, nice and slow. Go!" Sam and Leah approach the briefing room door. "Do you see them coming out, Mr. Taylor? Can you see them?" Ed asks me.  
"Yes, I can see them. Thank you, Sir" I reply.  
"Good" Ed states. "Bang. Bang" and pretends to shoot the hostages in the back. "There's your goodwill, Mr. Taylor. Now, get me my money!" he barks and hangs up.

I don't know how to react to this. Crap. Another two dead hostages? My mind starts racing, thinking of what went wrong and where I should have acted differently. But I cannot come up with a solution.  
"So" Greg begins. "What now, Nick?"  
"I, uh…" I hesitate, intensely thinking and reflecting the situation. "I-I don't know right now, Sarge" I admit.  
"Okay" Greg accepts my surrender. "Take a break and think about it. We'll talk this through in a few."  
The session is over for now, and the team starts to sit down again at the table as the alarm goes off.  
"Team One, hot call!" Winnie calls and we hurry to gear up and get going.

I still ponder over the failed negotiation exercise as I sit in one of the black SUVs, only a few minutes later. Ed is driving the car, looking at me from the side every now and then as we go.  
"Don't take it too hard buddy, chin up. It'll get better with exercise" he tells me.  
"Yeah. It's just… everything I tried twisted the situation around to the worse. And at the end I just didn't know what to think anymore. I mean, I had a good profile…"  
"Very good profile!" Ed throws in approvingly.  
"…I was trying to connect, to be understanding and all. I just didn't know how to react to it. I don't know. I just couldn't get it right."  
"Takes time, buddy. Don't force it. You'll get into it sooner or later" Ed reassures me.

"_We've got a possible domestic"_ Greg begins briefing us over radio while we arrive at the scene. _"Neighbours called nine-one-one, the woman, Cara Seymour, was heard screaming at her husband, Matt Seymour, to stop. What, we don't know. Neighbours heard two gun shots a while after and called the police."  
_Ed parks the car and we get out to meet with the others.  
"I don't hear a thing. You?" Spike asks me as I approach. I listen and realize that he's right. No screaming. I shake my head. "Nothing" I agree and Spike takes off to get into the van.  
"They're not answering the phone" Greg informs us as we assemble.  
"Ok guys, here it is. We don't know if there is anyone still alive in this building, so we're gonna have a look. Nick, Jules" he orders and we take off, carefully rounding the house to see if we can make out something.  
_ "The Police had visited the house quite a few times over the last past years"_ we listen to Spike's report as we go. _"Twenty-seven times, all in all, but every time the neighbours called the police, the wife defended her husband, pretending that everything was ok. Three years ago, the wife pressed charges of domestic abuse against her husband, but withdrew them only a week later."_ He took a short break before he continued. _"There's one child, a two year old girl named Mary-Ann."  
"Probably the reason why she withdrew the charges..."_ Greg suggests.

We arrive at the backside of the small, two storied house, having checked every ground floor window. None of them were dulled, we could see in clearly, but couldn't find anything out of the usual. At the back of the house, a small terrace is overlooking the garden, the terrace door, leading to the kitchen, is gaping wide open.  
"Ed, there's no one on to be seen on the ground floor, but the terrace door is open" Jules reports.  
_"Copy that. We go in front, upper floor. You go in back, ground floor. Stealth entry, be careful"_ Ed orders.  
"Copy" Jules replies and slowly approaches the back door. I follow close behind, keeping an eye to our surroundings. We silently enter the kitchen, checking every corner, but we find nothing but orderly arranged kitchen utensils and groceries.  
"Kitchen's clear" I report and we move on to the living room, equally accurate inspecting it.  
_"Boss. Upper floor, bedroom"_ Leah sounds over the radio. _"There's two bodies. Looks like a murder-suicide. The woman's still holding the gun."  
_"Shit" I quietly curse.  
_"What about the baby?" _Greg asks, and for a long time we hear nothing over the radio while we quickly check the rest of the ground floor.  
_"Dead as well" _Leah reports.

I again share a car with Ed on the way back to the headquarters. We drive along in silence, none of us willing to speak about what we saw back at the house. I rub my hands over my face in exhaustion and disgust and turn my head to look out of the window.  
Leah found the baby lying in her crib in a puddle of blood. She was dead, but not cold, yet, having a severe head wound that most likely was the cause of death. We assume the husband, Mr. Seymour, was mistreating his wife once again, killing their baby daughter, perhaps by accident. The wife, snapped after seeing her daughter die, got the gun and killed first her husband, then herself. It was all over before we even arrived.  
We park the cars in the garage and get out, take off our gear, clean out our guns and store them back in the weapons locker.  
"Hey Eddie, you see the boss somewhere?" I ask him after changing back into my jeans and t-shirt.  
"Briefing room I'd suggest" he answers as he goes up to his own locker to change.  
"Thanks." I go and search for Greg. I see him sitting at the head of the table inside the briefing room, papers spread out in front of him. He is resting his elbows on the table, head buried in his hands.  
"Sarge" I greet him as I enter. "Writing reports?" I ask after a moment, pointing at the papers.  
"Yep" he answers, looking up at me. He looks worn out, exhausted.  
"Are you ok?" I ask him.  
"Yeah" he says and tries to smile, but I can see that it's a fake one. He sighs and reconsiders after a moment, softly shaking his head. "No." I sit down and try to smile at him reassuringly, but I know exactly what the matter is. I know how he feels. This is the reason why I left Homicide.  
"You know, this is the hardest part" he tells me after a while. "To be there and yet not be able to do anything." He shakes his head. "I'll get over it, don't worry, Nicki." I nod in response as he dismisses the matter.  
"Sarge, I wanted to speak to you about the exercise this morning" I ask him after a few moments of silence. "You up for it?"  
"Sure." He collects his papers and puts them aside. "Shoot."  
"Well. It's just that I don't really understand where I went wrong, you know? I was… I was trying to connect, to understand. Referring to high authority, trying to get concessions by talking him into releasing the hostages... Trying to keep him talking, to give me something I can work with… I was trying to do textbook, you know?" I look at him. "I'm just not sure what happened."  
"Life is not textbook, Nick" he explains, resting his arms on the table and firmly looking at me.  
"That's what we're trying to demonstrate here. There's always times when the situation changes and you got to adjust. You gotta be able to listen, to consider fast and adjust to the new situation." He sits back in his chair and folds his arms over his chest, still looking at me. "You're gonna get there in time, buddy. You just need field practice" he concludes. "You're profiling was nice. You got almost every little hint Ed threw you." I think about it for a moment before I nod at him.  
"Come on. Let's review your exercise together" he suggests and shuffles through his papers to find the right ones.

* * *

When I finally get home two hours later, I see a familiar figure waiting next to my front door, drinking coffee from a paper cup.  
"Hey" Spike smiles at me as I approach him and I smile back.  
"Hey. What ya doing?" I ask him.  
"Visiting a friend" he grins and winks at me. "Got a bag of groceries right here with me. Thought you might wanna cook me dinner" he jokes and holds up a white plastic bag, smirking as I laugh in response.  
"Sure. Come in" I tell him and open the door. "So, what am I cooking for you?" I ask him grinningly as we go up in the elevator and move towards my apartment.  
"I've got pasta, pesto and some cheese" he lists. "And a six pack of beer."  
"Whoa, buddy, that's five star cooking!" I smile and let us in to my apartment. "Not so sure I'm able to get it right though… I may need your help with boiling the water." I kick my sneakers at the shoe rack and enter the living room as Spike laughs at my joke, trailing behind.  
"Annie, you home?" I call, but there's no response. "I'm gonna call her, if it's alright with you" I tell him and he nods. I get my cellphone out and start dialling her number as Spike sets up the ingredients next to the stove and helps himself to a beer.  
"Annie, hey, it's me. Listen, Spike's over and we're gonna cook dinner…" I start explaining.  
_"It's alright, don't count me in today. I'm gonna stay with Sharon tonight. I'll be back tomorrow"_ she chimes happily on the other end of the line as Spike hands me a bottle of beer.  
"Okeydokey" I reply. "Have fun and send my greetings."  
_"Will do."_ She hangs up.  
"So, your girlfriend's not gonna join us?" Spike asks.  
"No" I reply and hesitate a moment as I realize that it's just going to be him and me tonight. My heart skips a beat and I have to remind myself of my promise. A crush is okay. Just don't act on it, Nicki. Never act on it, I tell myself and turn around to face Spike again. "No, she's staying at a friend's house tonight" I explain to him. "But she's not my girlfriend, we've merely lived together since, well, always." I smirk at him. "She's not seeing someone at the moment, if you want to try..." I add, feeling a little nervous. I don't really want to hear Spike telling me he fancies my best friend, even though I can't ever be with him myself.  
"Nah, I'm good" he replies instead, taking a sip of his beer, leaning on the counter next to the stove and I can't help but feeling relieved.  
"Okay, I'm hungry, let's start." I dig up some pots and pans and start preparing dinner with Spike standing next to me the whole time, leaning on the fridge, drinking his beer, watching me and telling stories.


	7. Double time

**Chapter seven –Double time  
****Thursday, 11th October, 2012**

"Team one, gear up! Hot call. Possible bomb threat" Winnie's voice sounds over the loudspeakers and we rush to get to the cars.  
_"Security guards found a suspicious car parked down in the underground car park at a bank skyscraper, financial district"_ Winnie briefs us over radio as we go. I drive the car to the scene, Spike sitting on the front seat next to me. _"They opened the trunk and saw lots of wires, called nine-one-one immediately"_ she continues. _"One of the guards took a picture, check your PDAs."  
_"Ah, that's a classic one" Spike explains next to me, showing me the picture on his PDA as I drive. I see wires and cords and a timer showing a little more than forty-two minutes._  
_"Used classic TNT. Well-tried method, foolproof, but easily diffusible. If I get it right from the picture, you just gotta cut one cord and it's done." He excitedly smiles at me. "Simplest stuff ever."_  
"Okay then, we'll go in, take care of it, and go home early"_ Greg summarizes over the radio._  
"Sam, you gotta go with Spike. Jules and Nick, you check the building. Security says it's all cleared, but we gotta make sure. The rest of us stay outside, clear the area and coordinate with fire services, just in case"_ Ed continues.

As we arrive at the scene, the area surrounding the building is neatly locked down. Police officers have blocked the access to the area, fire services and EMS standing by. We quickly get out of the cars, grab our equipment and jog up to the building. Spike and Sam get down to the underground garage while Jules and I quickly check the building floor by floor, searching for people that did not manage to leave the building yet.  
_"Security says they got everyone out. All employees are accounted for"_ Greg reports over radio. _"Check the building nonetheless, make sure, but be quick about it" _he repeats our orders and we obey. _"Spike, status?"_  
_"Found the package, working on diffusing it. There's twenty-seven minutes left on the timer"_ he reports. _"Boss, this bomb is pretty huge. It's filling up the whole trunk compartment. Classic TNT based device. Searching for counter measures to be sure, but everything seems pretty basic. Wires are color coded, if there are no other counter measures, which I'm sure are not, it's no problem to diffuse it at all"_ We listen to the radio chatter as Jules and I go up and up, checking floor after floor.  
_"Any indication as to who the bomber is?" _Greg asks.  
_"Nothing but the licence plate. Sam's searching the car"_ Spike replies.  
_"Winnie already run the licence plate, but it's a fake. Nothing gained from it."_ Greg sighs frustrated.  
_"Spike. Take a look at this" _we hear Sam call out.  
_"What's up, Sam? What did you find?"_ Greg asks and adds after some moments of silence _"Where'd you go, buddy? Talk to me."_  
_"Boss. Sam found some blueprints in the car. Designs, construction plans"_ he takes a short break. _"Boss. There's two bombs."_  
_"Son of a bitch!"_ Greg replies colourfully. _"Where?!"_  
_"Not sure. That other one seems to be smaller. Like… like it could fit into a training bag, if I see this right… Could be anywhere…"_ Spike explains.  
_"So what's there to target? What's the second bomb for?"_Ed asks, pondering.  
_"Down here's nothing. It's only three levels of underground parking" _Spike describes. _"I'm not really sure about this boss, but I've got the feeling the second bomb could be somewhere upstairs. Looks to me like a backup. Something to make sure the target's hit. Wouldn't make sense to plant a smaller bomb directly next to a huge one that's fit to bring down a whole building."_ He pauses. _"Could mean the timers are synchronized."_  
_"Agreed"_ Greg replies. _"Jules, status."_  
"Running up the stairs to the, uh, fifteens floor now. Nothing suspicious, yet. We'll keep checking." Jules reports next to me.  
_"Copy that. Keep looking. Leah and I will start from the ground floor again, maybe we find something suspicious"_ Ed decides.  
_"Sam, go with Ed. Don't take too long, guys. You've got fifteen minutes tops, then you get the hell outta there"_ Greg commands.  
We run up another set of stairs as we notice a training bag, lying suspiciously in front of an office.  
"Sarge, we found the second bomb" Jules reports over the radio as I carefully open the zippers to reveal a bunch of colourful wires.  
_"What does the timer say?"_ Greg asks over radio.  
"Five-thirty-six" I read the timer and take a picture with my phone, sending it to the team. "Just sent you a picture. Spike?"  
_"I'm almost done here. Seconds away from diffusing this one…" _Spike replies. _"There. Got it, device disabled. Where's the second one?"_  
"Eighteenth floor" Jules says next to me. "In front of the entrance to the CEO's office."  
_"Eighteenth floor…? Boss… I'm… I'm not gonna make it" _Spike declares, breathless and clearly sounding shocked._ "I'm almost on ground floor now, but the elevators are locked down and there's no time to override security. No way I'm able to run up eighteen floors in… just about four minutes." _He hesitates a moment._ "You have to get outta there, guys."_  
_"He's right. Everybody, get out, now. Clear the area" _Ed orders.  
"Boss, maybe I can diffuse the bomb. Look at your PDAs, the layout seems to be the same as the last one, and Spike's got the plans. He just has to talk me through" I suggest, not moving anywhere.  
_"You sure?" _Greg asks.  
"Positive" I reply, despite being a little nervous.  
_"Jules, Ed, everybody get down here. One man down range!"_ Greg orders.  
"Copy that, boss" Jules replies and with a last reassuring look at me she turns and runs down the corridor.  
_"Spike, start talking to him"_ Greg orders.  
_"I can't, boss. He needs to get out"_ Spike refuses. _"Get outta there, Nicki. Get out. Get…"_ he breaks off.  
"Spike, you told me yourself that it's not that big a deal, that there's just one wire you'd need to cut. 'Simplest stuff ever', you remember?" I try to persuade him. "Come on, buddy, talk to me."  
_"No. No, no, no. I can't" _Spike desperately begs._ "I can't. Please, Nicki, get outta there. Please… Please, Nicki, please… "_  
"Spike…" I try to convince him, but he interrupts me.  
_"Get OUT!" _he screams, sounding panicked. I hesitate a bit, wondering what's wrong all of a sudden.  
_"Michelangelo! This is not about Lou! Start. Talking. Now!"_ Greg commands strictly.  
_"Boss…"_ Spike starts, but I cut him short, shaking my head, although nobody can see me.  
"Spike, timer says one-fifty now. There's no time to argue… Talk me through!" I try again to persuade him, my heart racing fast by now.

"…_you see the batteries?" _he asks after a few seconds, giving up his resistance._ "There's three of them, circular, size of a penny. You see it?"  
_I breathe out and kneel down, taking a good look at the device. There's TNT tightly bundled together, cords and wires sticking out of it everywhere, meeting on a board in front of the device. The board's equally full of colourful wires, with three coin cells and a small digital timer readout attached to it._  
_"I see it. Three batteries, one north, one west, one east" I describe what I am able to see._  
"Good. Now, have a look at the wires. Each battery has one specific wire directly attached to it" _Spike explains and I search the device for the wires he meant. _"It's important you. Don't. Touch. Anything. You hear me?" _he sternly insists._ "Find out where those three wires go and have your knife ready."  
_I take out my knife, slightly panting and sweating a bit. "I'm ready."_  
"The wires join at one point to the south and become one. Do you see it?"_ he asks._  
_"Affirmative" I claim.

"_Cut this cord. And only this one, you hear me? Don't touch anything else!"  
_I hold my breath and carefully reach out to the device to take the cord. I hesitate a moment and take my gloves off. I've got a better grip this way. Quickly wiping my forehead with the back of my wrist, I reach for the cord, take it and swiftly but carefully cut through it with my knife, still holding my breath until I see the timer die. I sit back, relieve flowing through my body as I inhale deeply._  
_"Bomb diffused."

As I emerge out of the staircase a few minutes later, I see Spike standing in the deserted main hall of the building, facing me. I notice his eyes seem to be a little red and puffy as I walk up to him, but he leaves me no time to think about it. He forcefully grabs me and swoops me up into a tight embrace, and suddenly my world only revolves around him holding me close. My heart skips a beat or two as he buries his head into my shoulder, but before I am able to fully comprehend what's going on, he lets go again, turns around and leaves, without so much as wasting any words on it.  
I am left behind, totally stunned and dumbstruck. What the…? Did he cry? I wonder, my heart beating way too fast. Bewildered I just keep standing in the middle of the hall, staring at nothing in particular and needing another full two minutes until I am able to move again.

* * *

Back at the barn I take my time to shower and dress, not being in a hurry.  
"We're grabbing a drink. You coming?" Ed asks me, indicating the door as he is about to leave. Everyone else already got out, so I am the last one left, except for Spike and Greg. Greg dragged Spike into the briefing room as soon as we got here, for a private conversation.  
"Not today" I decline and shake my head. "I'm waiting" I explain to him and nod in the direction of the briefing room.  
"Alright" Ed nods understandingly. "See you tomorrow then" he waves at me and leaves.  
"Yeah, see you then" I wish him goodbye and sit down at a bench, waiting. Spike and Greg are still arguing privately inside the briefing room. I heard some shouting earlier, but Greg closed the door as they went in, so I could not make out any words. I sigh and hang my head. I am waiting for Spike, I want to speak to him, want to know what's up. I want to make sure he's ok.

Suddenly the door to the changing room swings open and Spike comes in, visibly stressed out and angry. He sees me sitting at the bench and stops.  
"What?" he barks at me. "You wanna bitch me out, too?" He stomps over to his locker, forcefully yanking it open. "Don't waste your fucking breath!" He grabs his things, slams the door to his locker shut and storms off to the showers before I can think of anything to say at all.  
Wondering, I stay behind, still sitting at the bench. What the hell was that about? Shaking my head I resume my waiting. He has to come out and speak to me sooner or later.

It takes Spike about half an hour to come out of the shower again, barefoot and with a bare chest, but already dressed in his jeans, working a towel through his short hair. He sees me still sitting at the bench, hesitates a moment and sits down next to me. I look at him, raising my eyebrows and crossing my arms on my chest as I sit back, waiting for him to speak.  
"Look, I'm sorry" he begins talking after a few moments of uncomfortable silence. "I'm sorry I yelled at you." He looks miserable and I can't help but feel sorry for him. I want to hold him in my arms so badly right now, I almost can't resist. Instead I get up, holding my hand out to help him onto his feet.  
"Come on. I'll buy you a drink and then you start talking. What do you say?" I suggest and Spike nods, taking my hand.

We arrive at the small Irish inn about ten minutes later. I get up to the bar to order our first round of drinks, while Spike is searching for a quiet place to sit down. Sitting down on the opposite side of the table, I put a beer in front of him.  
"So" I start, sipping my own beer. The way here has been quiet. None of us knew what to say, so we just kept our mouths shut. "How're you holding up?" I finally ask.  
"I'm fine" Spike briefly replies.  
"Yeah?" I press the matter. "Not buying it, buddy." I shake my head a little and look at him.  
"I know" he smiles lightly and combs his fingers through his short hair.  
"Look" he resumes after a slight pause. "I'm sorry I yelled. I was… distressed after the uh, conversation I had with the boss." Spike takes a gulp of his beer before he continues. "Boss made it clear I am… 'Unfit for duty' and that I need to uh, 'take a break'." He puts his beer down and looks at me. "So, I'll be taking a few days off. Not coming in for work again until Monday" he concludes.  
"But you know what?" Spike resumes after a moment and nods, sitting up in his seat. "You know what? He's right. I endangered my team today. I was not thinking clearly, I lost focus. I wasn't rational." He looks and me and pauses.  
"What exactly happened today?" I inquire. Spike looks down at the table and plays with his beer glass, thinking deeply.  
"I had a friend at the SRU" he finally begins, leaning forward to rest both of his forearms on the table, still playing with his beer glass. "Lou. Lewis Young. We were… we were close, Lou and I…" He takes a break, clearly not knowing where to begin, combing his fingers through his hair, visibly troubled. I let him think and patiently wait for him to continue.  
"There was a bomb case, a few years back. Serial bombs, set by an Eco terrorist to prove… to prove a point. Three. There were three bombs. First one exploded on a construction side, no harm done. We could evacuate in time. We traced the components and located the second bomb, but the last one was still missing. And I was still busy with bomb number two when Lou found the last one… We were…" he took another break and I watch him closely. It obviously is hard for him to speak about the incident.  
"We were running out of time" he continues. "And I was too far away, so I… I agreed that he went on, I was going to talk him through. Same as today, I had the plans, the designs. And that bomb wasn't a problem." Spike takes a long break, takes a sip of his beer and starts playing with a bracelet that's tied around his wrist. I reach out over the table and place my hand on his. He looks at me and gives me the tiniest of smiles, before he goes on.  
"Lou… he… he managed to diffuse the bomb but… stepped on a landmine in the process." He stops dead, and I take in a sharp breath. Oh fuck. Spike looks down at our hands in front of him and twists his wrist around a bit, interlacing his fingers in mine, making my heart beat a tad faster.  
"I could not save him, Nicki" he tells me with an unstable voice, still looking at our intertwined hands. "We diffused the bomb and got it out of the way, but… Lou… there was no way. I… I would have tried anything, but… but Lou, he did not want to endanger me. He was getting tired, and… When I was at the car, getting my equipment, he… he just stepped off it." Spike drops silent and we both just sit there for a while, thinking quietly for ourselves.  
After a few minutes he looks up at me. "So, today was… well, I was reminded of Lou and… I couldn't bear to see you endangered." He hesitates. "I'd rather seen that building come down, you know?" He squeezes my hand tightly for a moment and smiles, then loses his grip, letting go of my hand. Sitting back in his seat again, he sighs, combing his fingers through his hair.  
"I-I'm sorry." I don't know what else to say. There simply are no words left.  
"Don't be" he tells me and shakes his head, smiling again. "It's ok. Really."

"So, forced holiday?" I ask after another few moments of silence, looking at him.  
"Yep" he grins a little. "Sleeping in, staying up late, having time to do all the terrible housework… Not that bad if you stop to think about it." He takes a sip of his beer, still grinning. "Besides, I'll be back on the job in three days, so it could be worse."  
I smile at his enthusiasm, being glad that he's back to his old joking self.  
"You know what?" Not being sure if I should leave him alone tonight, I render an idea. "What about this. We finish our drinks, get out and buy a bottle of whiskey or whatever you like, order pizza and you crash at my place tonight." I look at him, smiling. "My sofa's pretty cozy."  
"Yeah." Spike seems to be delighted by the idea. "Yeah, let's do that" he beams at me and quickly drains the rest of his beer.

* * *

Only two hours later, Spike and I are both sitting cross-legged at my couch, facing each other, slightly drunk and an empty pizza box lying on the coffee table in front of the couch. The TV is playing in the background, but we are not paying attention. Anne is already inside her room, getting to sleep timely today, as she's got to go to work early in the morning.  
"Ok, another question" Spike says. "Why'd you study psychology?"  
"That's a tough one" I explain, grabbing the bottle of booze we bought and refilling our glasses. "Well, I had an elder brother once" I start telling, sitting back in my seat, and taking a sip of my drink.  
"He was ten years older than I. He was a bright one, the family's genius." I remember, smiling. "He always wanted to be a psychologist, wanted to help people. But when I was fourteen, he had… an accident. Died on the spot." I take a short break to take another sip, looking at Spike. He lounges on the sofa across from me, leaning slightly to the side and resting his left arm on the backrest, sympathetically listening to every word I say.  
"Well, I'm not so sure why anymore, but somehow I decided to try and go for his dreams instead. To honour his memory, right? Turned out to be not quite the right thing for me to do, though. When I realised that his dreams are not my own, I dropped out and joined police academy."  
"What was his name?" Spike asks.  
"David" I answer him. "My turn." I take a moment to think about my next question.  
"Let's see. Why did you decide to become a bomb specialist?" I ask, honestly interested.  
"Yeah" he smiles. "I always was interested in fireworks when I was a kid. Roman candles, palomas, triangle bombs. Had a small chemistry set, constructed almost every possible kind of firework with it. Always blowing things up." He smiles and takes a sip of his drink, looking at me. "My dad was always so worried. One day when I was nine years old, he came home to find me in the garage, trying something new. But I got it wrong, and it blew up right in front of us. Burned myself pretty bad." He takes another sip.  
"Did you stop making bombs after that?" I ask him.  
"No" he shakes his head. "But I learned how to do it right. And then later on, I learned how to take them apart. Because I don't want to see people get hurt. I didn't want anyone to see the look I saw in my dad's eyes" he concludes, finishes his drink and smiles brightly as he holds out his glass to me. "My turn."  
"Shoot" I tell him as I give him a refill.  
"Right." He thinks about it for a moment. "That grudge you were talking about that one time. Between you and your father. What's that about?" He takes his glass from me, looking me in the eyes and waiting for my answer as I try to think about what to tell him.  
"Um." I play with my hair, thinking. "Yeah, well." I hesitate and take a breath as I shift my position a bit, sitting up in the sofa a little, leaning forward to rest my elbows on my knees.  
"We had a… some kind of argument." I begin, nervously combing my fingers through my hair. I can't tell Spike that my dad's not talking to me because I'm gay. I need to be careful of how much I reveal.  
"It was years ago, when I was just starting college. I did some things, made some choices that he was not happy about. He found out about it, and we got into a big fight, resulting in him throwing me out of his house." I take a sip of my drink. Spike looks at me, puzzled, clearly wanting to ask questions, but waiting for me to finish my story nonetheless. I smile at him and he grins back. "That's when Anne and I decided to move in together. She wanted to have an apartment of her own but didn't have the money. I didn't know where to go, though…" I shrug and take a sip of my drink.  
"You just started college? That must be, what, more 'n ten, twelve years ago" Spike does the math and whistles. "And you still holding up. Respect, buddy." He, too, takes a sip of his drink. "And you not once fancied her? Because you know, she's kinda hot." His comment about Anne hurts me a bit, but I keep smiling.  
"I know. We're simply not made for one another, I guess" I wave the matter aside.  
"So, what was that fight about? What were those choices and things you did?" he asks, eagerly interested in my story.  
"Sorry buddy, but that story's not for today to be heard" I apologize. "Maybe next time."  
"Mh. Right." He holds out his glass for another refill and I comply, filling my own glass as well. "What about your mother, then?"  
"She took his side first, but made amends sometime after" I tell him, watching as he shifts his position, dangling his legs over the armrest of the sofa and turning to rest his back on the seat. He grunts as he drains his drink and places the empty glass on the table before lying down on the sofa, folding his arms behind his head. His head now rests straight in front of my feet and I look down directly into his big, brown eyes. His gaze is slightly cloudy, due to the alcohol, but he smiles up at me and my heart skips a beat.  
"You tired?" I softly as him, bending down a bit and somewhat leaning forward, so he can see me better, wanting to caress his hair so much. I only need to reach down a bit, his head is only a few centimetres away from my hands, now. My heart starts beating double time upon the realisation of how close he is, and I am a tad afraid that Spike could be able to hear it. But he only looks at me and smiles, apparently very comfortable.  
"Nah" he answers, still smiling up at me. "Just resting my head." But closes his eyes nonetheless.  
I can't resist. I guess I maybe would have tried harder to, if I wouldn't have been a bit drunk, but as it is, I simply can't resist. Ever so slowly my right hand inches forward and I start cautiously playing with the tips of his hair, looking at his peaceful face. He smiles brightly at my first contact, still having his eyes closed and I enlace my hand into his hair more boldly, caressing his soft hair with tender and care. My heart is in my mouth by now, my face is hot and presumably beet-red, my palms are sweaty and my breath becomes somewhat shallow. Spike just lies there beneath me, looking the picture of peace, with his eyes still closed and a warm smile upon his lips as I fondle his hair.  
I slowly lean down, bit by bit, looking at his lips, looking at his closed eyes, looking at his lips again, swallowing nervously and licking my own lips, slowly bending down more and more and more…  
Stop! What the hell am I thinking? What am I doing? Am I out of my fucking mind? With a jolt I sit upright again, shocked by my own, empty-headed actions, mentally slapping myself over and over. Spike opens his eyes and looks at me a little puzzled, as I comb my right hand through my own hair now, nervously looking at him, not able to say a thing. Did he notice? Oh gods, please, please, please, let him not have noticed…  
"Hey, uhm" I begin, suddenly feeling a little queasy. "I guess I'll better go to bed."  
Spike sits up, still looking at me. "Guess that's a good idea" he tells me and nods.  
So far, so good. I get up from the sofa a little too shakily and walk into my bedroom, quickly searching a blanket for Spike. I hear him passing outside my room, going to the bathroom to get ready for the night. We picked up a toothbrush for him at the store when we were walking home.  
"Hey Nicki?" he calls, suddenly standing in my bedroom door. Startled, I spin around, looking at him.  
"You have some sweat pants for me or something?" he asks, leaning on the doorframe.  
"Of course." I take a pair of pants out of my wardrobe and hand them to him.  
"Thanks" he smiles and walks back into the bathroom. I grab one of my pillows from my bed and the blankets I got for him and wander back into the living room, placing them on the couch. I turn off the TV and gather the almost empty bottle of booze, the glasses and the pizza box and take them to the kitchen counter. I take a clean glass and a bottle of water and walk back to the couch, placing the items on the coffee table for Spike. As I turn around I see him approaching from the bathroom, dressed only in my sweat pants now, his chest naked. I can only hardly prevent to stare as he comes up to me, smiling.  
"Thank you" he sighs and let's himself fall down onto the couch.  
"Goodnight, Spike. Sleep well" I wish and smile, turning to get into the bathroom myself.  
"Nighty-night" he calls after me and goes to sleep.

* * *

The next morning comes too soon. The alarm clock goes off at five-thirty, as every morning, but I just cannot bring myself to move for another ten minutes or so, trying to bury my head under my pillow. Finally getting up and turning the damned thing off, I remember the last evening and therefore the reason why my head aches. Spike's here, he's sleeping on the couch, just outside my room! My heart beats a tad faster as I realize and I finally search for my training clothes and put them on. As I walk into the living room, I see Spike still soundly sleeping on the couch. He is lying halfway on his stomach, his feet dangling off to the side, one arm placed under the pillow, the other one clutching the blankets to his chest and being the reason why his back is left bare. I smile at the cute picture and stand in the middle of the room for a few seconds, wanting to memorize this image forever. I finally turn around, starting the coffee maker and leaving the apartment for my morning run. It's gotta be a short one today, I already lingered too long.

As I arrive back at the apartment, I hear Spike and Anne talking to each other as soon as I opened the door.  
"Oh really? He never told me that!" I hear Spike saying and the both of them start laughing.  
"I'm back" I call and walk into the kitchen. Spike is sitting at the counter, still with a bare chest, only dressed in my sweat pants and smiling his usual smile. He looks pretty tired, but beams at me as I enter, firmly holding a mug of coffee with both of his hands. Anne stands at the coffee maker, fully dressed for work, preparing another mug of coffee and holding it out for me as I approach.  
"Good morning, sunshine" she greets me as I take the mug. "Need a painkiller, too?" she grins and I look at Spike, blowing my hot coffee to cool it down.  
"Yeah, yeah. Had a hell of a headache when I woke up" he admits and guiltily grins at me. I smirk back and comb a lose strand of hair out of my face. My head hurts, too, but I'll have a shower first. Maybe I won't need the painkiller. I lean on the counter next to the fridge, facing Spike and watching Anne walking around the counter to resume her seating next to him.  
"Who never told you what?" I ask and take a sip of my coffee. Ouch. Still too hot.  
"That's our little secret" Anne winks at Spike and they both grin at each other.  
"What, you gang up against me?" I ask, playfully sulking. "Okay, okay… I'm not going to trust you with a secret ever again." I stick out my tongue at Anne and Spike laughs heartily. Oh gods, how I love to hear him laugh.  
"Okay, gotta go" Anne says, still grinning. Placing her mug back on the counter, she comes up to me and kisses me on the cheek. "See you tonight, babe." She turns around and waves at Spike. "Bye Spikey!" she calls and we both watch her leave.  
"I like her" Spike states as she's out of the door, taking a sip of his coffee. "You certain she's not your girlfriend? Cause the two of you sure act like it."  
"Yeah, I'm sure." I take a sip of my now drinkable coffee. "You wanna try?"  
"Nah, I'm good" he replies, smiling up at me. "Not interested at the moment."  
"So?" I try fishing for some more information, even though I know it won't do me much good. "Having someone else in mind?"  
He just grins at me for a moment before he finally answers.  
"Maybe" he casually states, making my heart beat double time again.


	8. Hacking the unhackable system

**Chapter eight –Hacking the unhackable system  
****Friday, 26th October, 2012**

Another night, another nightshift at the SRU.  
"All right, guys. Take a break, calm down a bit. See you in the briefing room in twenty" Ed orders as we put down our guns and take them apart to clean them. It's half past one in the morning and we still have a few hours to go, before we all get to have a nice, long weekend.  
"So." Spike is standing right next to me, thoroughly cleaning his weapons after our practice session at the shooting range. "Any plans for the weekend?" he asks.  
"Nothing so far" I answer him, assembling my gun again. "Asking me out on a date, buddy?" I joke, smirking at the weapon in my hands.  
"Sure" he goes along with my joke, unintentionally causing my heart to skip a beat. "We'll have a nice candlelight dinner, maybe going to the movies afterwards, I walk you home, it's getting romantic, goodnight kiss at the door…" he grins, completely oblivious to how much I'd really love to do exactly that. Even though I do know that he's only joking, my pulse starts rushing through my veins as I hear him saying such things to me. I just can't help it.  
"Or" he stops, turning around to look at me, smiling that bright smile I love so much. "Or we just go to that party with Sam and Jules." He winks at me. "Your choice."  
"Ah well" I laugh as I store my gun at its designated place and turn to face him. "I really do like the movies…" I take a short dramatic pause, pretending to think about it. "But I guess I'll settle for that party." I grin at him.  
"Great." He turns around again, finishing the cleaning. "It's at the waterfront, Jules knows the place. Entry's not cheap, but it includes a food and beverages flat rate" he explains. I turn and lean on the counter next to him as he goes on, combing some loose strands of hair back behind my ears as I watch him working.  
"Some bands are playing, people dancing, drinking, chatting and flirting… It's gonna be fun!" he concludes, storing his weapon as well, grinning at me. "I'll pick you up at eight."  
"Team One, hot call! Hostage situation at G.M.S. Technologies Headquarters" Winnie's voice sounds over the loudspeakers, interrupting our conversation and we rush to get ready and head off.

"_We got a nine-one-one call, informing us of two armed subjects at G.M.S. Technologies"_ Greg briefs us over radio as we drive to the scene. _"The man on the call is assumed a hostage. He was cut off and the device he'd been calling from is offline. We neither have a name nor do we know what the subjects want."  
_"G.M.S. Technologies" Spike explains, sitting next to me on the driver's seat. "Highly advanced gun technologies, missile guidance and stealth systems. The data stored at the HQ is worth zillions of dollars. But the security system is tight. It's almost unhackable."  
_"So they're taking hostages to gain access to this data"_ Greg concludes.  
"That's my guess" Spike replies. "But who's there to take hostage in the middle of the night?" he asks, shooting me a thoughtful glance.  
_"Well, let's see what we can find out about that"_ Greg replies.

"Okay, CCTV is up and running, they didn't shut it down. There are two armed and unidentified subjects holding four hostages at fifth floor server rooms" Spike explains as we all gather around the CCTV broadcast on the laptop. Floor plans and layouts are spread out across the hood of one of our SUVs, the laptop standing next to them.  
"There has been no alarm, so we've got no emergency lockdown to face" Spike continues. "Which is good and bad. Good because every system is running, including CCTV, bad because every system is running, including the server with the data."  
"Right. Spike, Nick, set up a Command Post at the security station and talk to the officers, figure out a way to carefully lock down that building without giving them access to the data by accident." Ed instructs. "Jules and I are Alpha Team. Sam, Leah, Bravo Team. We go in, careful and quiet. Boss is coming with us to initiate negotiations with the subjects. Alpha stays with the boss, Bravo goes securing the building." He looks around and nods his head, taking the laptop while I gather up the layouts. "Let's go."

We move out, carefully ascending the front steps of the seven story high building. Spike approaches the front desk security station to set up his equipment. Ed, Greg and Jules head towards the elevator to directly move up to the fifth floor server room to speak to the hostages while Sam and Leah are heading off to check the building floor by floor. I walk up to the security officer waiting for us at the front desk.  
"Sir, my name is Nicholas Taylor, SRU. Are you the commanding officer?"  
"Yes I am" he replies, holding out his hand to greet me. "Sven Martens."  
"What can you tell me about the incident?" I ask him, coming directly to the point, and taking notes as he speaks.  
"Two men have barricaded themselves inside the server room with hostages. We don't know who they are, yet" he replies.  
"How did they get inside?"  
"I don't know. They definitely didn't come through the front doors, but the system didn't report an unauthorized access to the building on any of the other doors, either" the officer shrugs.  
"Tell me about the server room" I inquire.  
"It's a security room, walls are two times as big as anywhere else in this building. No windows, no second door, only one security door. If that door closes, the room is completely locked" he explains.  
"What about the data stored on the servers?" I ask further.  
"Not accessible unless you have at least a level six security clearance. It shuts down completely whenever a wrong code or an unfamiliar programme is registered, deleting all data if the process is not authorized within a certain time and locking down the building to prevent theft" he answers. "The system is very sensible. It shuts down on the slightest sign of assault."  
"How long until lockdown when the system notices a breach?" I want to know.  
"Three minutes." I nod and turn to face Spike, taking the laptop he is just handing me over the counter.  
"Anyone up there who has the security clearance to access the data?" I ask and show the CCTV pictures on the laptop to the guard. I can see one of the subjects standing in the middle of the room, calmly facing the doors, half hiding behind a male, Caucasian hostage and holding a gun to his head. Three more hostages are kneeling in the middle of the room in front of the subject, arms above their heads, their backs turned to the doors. The second subject is setting up a laptop on a table in a corner of the room, hidden between walls and server towers, hidden from view from the doors.  
The guard shakes his head. "No. No, I don't know any of those guys." He hesitates one moment, then points out one of the hostages kneeling on the floor. "That man. He's a guard. Jones... Alfred or Adam or something like that. But he's new, he hasn't got any security clearance. The others..." he shakes his head again. "They may wear our uniform, but... I've never seen any of them."  
"Alright, thank you." I hand the laptop back to Spike.  
"Jones. I'm on it" he directs a short nod at me and faces the monitors in front of him, presumably accessing employee files. I turn back to the guard.  
"What exactly happens when the system notices a security breach?"  
"Security doors close, locking up everyone inside the building. Systems run emergency protocols. Servers shut down completely and all vaults are locked. Only someone with the highest security clearance can access and restart the system after a lockdown" the security guard explains.  
"So, given the fact that there has not been a lockdown yet, the subjects have not yet tried to infiltrate the servers" I conclude. "Is there a way to shut down the server without triggering the lockdown?"  
"I… I don't know about that." The security officer shakes his head.  
"Spike? What do you think?" I ask, looking at Spike, who has arranged his equipment around the security desk and sits in front of the monitors, having access to the system and finding out more about its specifications.  
"Well, there's one way. We can run a maintenance mode. The server shuts down, but without activating emergency protocols" he suggest and I nod. "It will shut down the server, making the data inaccessible for the subjects. But I'll need a level three security clearance for that."  
"I can get you that" the security officer confirms.  
"Thank you, Sir. Please stay around, we might need your help again, soon." I nod at the security guard and wander around the desk where Spike works on the maintenance. I walk up to the tables behind him and spread out the floor plans of the building. I turn around again to stand behind Spike and look at the CCTV broadcast on one of the monitors in front of him, listening to the radio chatter.

The situation inside the server room hasn't changed. The subject is still holding one hostage at gunpoint, using him as a shield. On a second CCTV picture we can see the floor outside the server room, where Greg, Ed and Jules have now taken positions.  
_"This is Sergeant Gregory Parker, I'm with the Police Strategic Response Unit. Can you tell me if everyone is okay in there?"_ Greg asks, initiating the negotiations.  
_"Why, Gregory, hello. We are okay, so far, and I believe you would like to keep it that way, am I right?"_ I can hear the subject responding. I see him smiling up to Greg, but still holding the hostage at gunpoint.  
_"Of course, Sir. Thank you for keeping the others calm in there. Would you care to tell me your name?"_ Greg asks again.  
_"You can call me Oracle if you like. Of course I would like to keep the others as calm as possible, but that solely depends on your actions, Gregory. You stay out of this room. You let me do what I have to do. And nobody will get hurt."  
"No solution"_ Ed softly states. The angle he has is not good enough to eliminate the subject without endangering the hostages.  
"Boss" Spike comments. "Oracle is the name of one of the greatest hackers of the late twentieth century. I mean, it's not him though, because the original Oracle died a few years ago, but I guess it's not a coincidence he chose that name."  
_"Copy"_ Greg replies. _"Anything about the others?"  
_"We've got an ID on one of the hostages. Security guard Adam Jones, started this Job only a few weeks back." Spike sends out a photograph of Mr. Jones to the others. "There's nothing I can find about the subjects. No results for face recognition. And, strangely enough, Mr. Jones is the only one who I've got a match with, in the internal computer system. We've no idea who the other hostages are…" Spike reports.  
_"That's odd… Anything useful regarding the lockdown?"_ Greg asks.  
"I've spoken to the security officer" I report. "Highly sophisticated security system. As soon as we initiate an emergency lockdown of the servers, the whole building shuts down completely, sealing that door to the server room as well as every other security door in this building to prevent theft, and deleting any data from the servers" I explain. "But Spike can simulate a maintenance, shutting down the main system without triggering the security lockdown and making it impossible for Oracle to access the data."  
_"Do it"_ Greg orders him.  
"I'm on it, but I'll need a few minutes" Spike replies.

Greg addresses the subjects again. _"Oracle, how are you holding up in there?"_ he asks.  
_"I'm fine, Gregory, thank you for asking" _the subject answers calmly.  
_"You see, I'm kinda confused right now. Could you explain to me what it is that you are searching for in there?" _Greg tries to get the subject to open up.  
_"I don't think so, Gregory."_ Oracle shakes his head, smiling, still pointing the gun at the hostage in front of him. _"It's none of your business."  
"Oh, but it is, Oracle, it is my business as long as you've got those hostages in there" _Greg replies.

"Maintenance in progress" Spike reports. "System is shutting down, he can't access the data anymore."  
_"Thank you, Spike"_ Greg replies.  
I watch Oracle on the CCTV as he turns his head to face the subject who is sitting at the laptop. The subject says something inaudible and nods at Oracle, who seems content and turns around again, pointing his gun at one of the hostages kneeling in front of him.  
_"I am done talking to you, Gregory"_ he exclaims. _"You there. Get up. Get up, close that door."_ The hostage slowly stands up and walks towards the door, proceeding to close and locking it up.  
_"Ed, stay back. Stay back"_ Greg orders. _"What are you doing, Oracle?"_ he tries to engage the subject into a conversation again, but he does not respond. As soon as the door closes, Oracle turns his head and smiles directly into the CCTV camera, pointing his gun at it. Then the broadcast fails, only showing a black screen.  
"Shit" I comment. "We're locked out."  
_"What's going on, Spike?"_ Greg asks, impatiently.  
"He shot the camera, boss" Spike tells him.  
_"That son of a bitch"_ Greg curses under his breath, turning to knock at the closed door.  
_"Oracle, is everything okay in there?" _He knocks again. _"I heard gunfire and I am somewhat concerned, now."  
"_Boss, that'll do you no good. Those doors are sound proof" Spike explains.  
_"Bravo Team, status?"_ Ed inquires.  
_"Building's clear, heading to you now"_ Sam replies over radio. _"Seconds away."  
"Can we get that door to open?"_ Greg asks.  
"Only with hard entry, but it's a security door. We'd need some serious explosives" Spike replies. "But that could damage the buildings structure..."  
_"Spike, we need to find an entry into that room. Fast is good"_ Ed orders.  
I turn around to have a look at the floor plans that are spread out on the table behind us. The server room is tightly shut, there's no second door, no window. I can only see a small air shaft for ventilation.  
"Ed, there's an air vent, accessible from the roof. It will be too small for access, but maybe you can get some eyes in" I suggest, taking pictures of the access point of that vent with my PDA and sending them to the team.  
_"Copy. Sam, get us eyes"_ he orders. _"What about the security door? Any way to open it?"  
_"Nothing" Spike replies. "The door is locked from the inside and we disabled the security system with the maintenance mode to shut the server down, so I cannot access it to open that door."  
_"Then get that system running again!"_ Greg orders harshly, almost yelling.  
"Not that simple, boss. We would have to manually reset the system. That's only possible from inside the server room, or with a certain clearance." Spike sounds resigned, shaking his head.  
_"God dammit!"_ we hear Greg cursing over radio and watch him kicking at the door in frustration.

_"So what's Oracle's plan here?"_ Jules inquires after a few moments of silence. _"We're blocking the only exit, it's not like he'll be able to just walk outside with the data."  
"Maybe that's what he needs the hostages for"_ Ed replies. _"Maybe he thinks he can bargain himself out somehow."  
_"Guys, I saw through the CCTV footage from earlier this evening. It seems like our Mr. Jones has let Oracle and his companion into the building through a backdoor..." Spike interrupts and I turn to have a look at his monitor. I can see three persons on the surveillance footage, Oracle, the unknown hacker, and a clearly nervous and panicky security guard Jones, accessing the building through a service entrance. With a few clicks, Spike sends the vital parts of the footage out to the team.  
"Hard to tell if he's doing it voluntarily or by force. What's your take on this, Sarge?"  
_"Mr. Jones could be acting under duress"_ Greg replies. _"But it's also possible that he's in on this."  
"Yeah"_ Ed confirms. _"But that still doesn't explain the other three hostages in that room..."_

"_We got eyes in" _Sam reports. _"Transmitting."  
_I turn to have a look at the laptop. We can clearly see the room from above now, but something is odd. The hostages are not kneeling on the floor anymore. Instead, two of them are standing in the corner of the room, bending over the table and looking over the shoulders of the second subject, who is working on his laptop. Two other former hostages have taken positions behind overturned tables, facing the doors, weapons in hand. The subject who called himself Oracle is impatiently pacing the floor in front of the hacker.  
"Uh, boss" Spike asks, darting a glance at me in wonder before facing the monitor again. "Do you get that?"  
_"We see it, Spike" _he replies. _"We just try to figure out what it means. Looks like we now have six subjects instead of two." _He pauses. _"What's that door in the back, there?"  
_"That's…" I quickly turn around and take another look at the floor plans. "That's a second room, a smaller one. Only accessible from the server room. Looks like a... a storage room on the layout."  
I turn around, signalling the security officer to come over and point the room out for him on the map.  
"Sir, what's that room?" I ask him as he takes a look.  
"Security vault. Storing highly sensitive data, backups, and such" he answers. Spike stops working on the laptop, turning around in his seat and looking at me, alarmed.  
I turn back to Spike, leaning over his shoulder, and looking at his monitors.  
"He cannot access the data from the server…" I murmur, thinking.  
"...because the main system is shut down, and the servers are inaccessible" Spike picks up on my thoughts.  
"So he tries accessing the backups instead." I assume, looking down at Spike, his face only a few inches away from mine.  
"No, no, they are safe and secure inside the vault. No connection to the main system anymore. Just data on a hard drive" the security officer interrupts.  
"Yeah, plus the vault's completely shut out from the system" Spike replies reflectively, looking up at me, staring right into my eyes and making my heart beat a little bit faster, despite the situation. "And, if the main system is under emergency lockdown, the vault system shuts down to emergency as well. You can't get inside as long as..." he suddenly stops, his eyes widen with shock.  
"Crazy son of a bitch" I reply equally shocked, grasping the meaning of all of this. "He's hacking the unhackable system."  
_"Buddy, you left me there. What are you saying?"_ Greg asks.  
"Guys, as… as long as the main security system is shut down with_out_ emergency, he can access the vault's system" Spike tells him.  
"Boss, he faked a hostage situation because he needed us to lock down the building. There wasn't an emergency, because that would've locked the vault shut. But we got the maintenance going, so the vault thinks everything is okay while the main system is out cold, making the vault system vulnerable" I try to explain, straightening up again.  
"We are helping him getting into the vault right now" Spike concludes. "And we can't do anything about it, because I cannot get into the vault system without direct access from inside the server room and the main security system is shut down." Spike sits back in his seat and combs the fingers of both of his hands through his hair in a desperate gesture, looking at me.

"_So what are we going to do about that?"_ Greg asks after a moment of silence, sounding angry and irritated.  
"I… I don't know, boss. I'm thinking. I'm thinking" Spike replies, staring at his monitor and uneasily thrumming his fingers on the desk.  
"Security protocols are inaccessible due to the maintenance mode" he softly summarizes, thinking hard. "To get the system running again we need access to the server room, but that room is locked..."  
"Spike" I interrupt, having an idea. "Spike, there's… basic emergency alarms are still accessible, right? Right?"  
"Right" he confirms, quizzically looking up at me, letting his restless fingers come to a halt.  
"So then… what about a fire?" I render my idea, looking at him.  
"Nicki, that's… that's brilliant. You're a genius. He's a genius, boss! Why didn't I think of that?" Spike replies enthusiastically, grinning happily and immediately getting to work. "Oh, I could kiss you right now, buddy, I could kiss you right now!"  
"You're welcome" I softly reply, flustered, but I don't think he notices anymore, he's so absorbed in his work.  
_"Spike, Nick, what's going on?"_ Ed inquires over radio.  
"Spike will trigger the fire alarm, letting the system think there's a fire inside the building" I straighten myself and explain our plan to him, letting Spike work. "This should cause the security doors to open, overriding any locked doors and giving you entry to the server room as well as locking down the vault, preventing the hacker to open it."  
_"Nice plan, buddy. Nicki, I'll need you up here. Spike, open that door on my command"_ he orders.  
"Copy that" I reply.  
"Okay, I'm in" Spike confirms as I rush away to meet up with the others. "Just give me a signal, and I'll initiate the fire alarm. It's not possible to do it silent, there'll be an alarm sound. But I'll get rid of it again."

I rush upstairs in the elevator and quickly hurry down the corridor to the server room. Ed nods at me as I approach and take my position beside them.  
"Leah, Nick, you take shields and cover" Ed instructs and I take the shield that Jules is handing me, taking my position on the left side in front of the door, while Leah covers the right side. Ed and Sam take their stands behind us, and Greg and Jules take cover behind the walls next to the door.  
"Okay. Spike, open the door in three… two… one" Ed orders and Spike triggers the fire alarm. A piercing alarm sounds through the entire building, but Spike quickly shuts it off again. The security door automatically swings open and Leah and I carefully take a few steps inside the room, covering Ed and Sam behind us.  
"Oracle. The system has been shut down. Whatever you tried to do, it's over! Drop your weapons to the ground and come out with hands in the air, right now!" Ed shouts through the open door.  
We hear a loud noise of probably a laptop and other equipment being wiped from a table and crashing onto the floor.  
"NO!" Oracle screams in rage.  
"Oracle. Drop your weapons to the ground and come out, hands where we can see them!" Ed calls again.  
"We have to get out of here!" I can hear one of the former hostages cry. "I'm coming out!" he drops his weapon and stands up, but as soon as he comes out of the corner, Oracle shoots him in the back. The subject drops motionless to the ground in front of us. Leah and I quickly take a few steps forwards, covering Sam checking the subjects pulse.  
"He's dead" Sam quietly reports, shaking his head as he puts on his glove again.  
"Fucking Bastard" Ed curses. "Fall back." We comply and carefully retreat backwards, until we are positioned inside the doorframe again.  
"Jules, give them a few rounds of CS gas" Ed orders in a whisper and we take out our gas masks and put them on, while Jules prepares the gas. She fires two rounds into the room as Ed gives the command and it only takes a few moments until the gas spreads out. We patiently wait a few moments for the gas to have an effect, but it does not take long until we hear gagging and coughing from the inside.  
"Go, go, go" Ed quietly orders and we storm in once more.  
"PUT YOUR WEAPONS ON THE GROUND! HANDS IN THE AIR! DO IT NOW!"  
Within only a few seconds, I take down one subject with a ram from my shield and kick his weapon aside, before letting Jules step up behind me to cuff the chocking subject. I move on to the next one, who is lying on the ground, almost unconscious from the gas. I carefully get rid of his weapon before securing his wrists behind his back. Standing, I take a look around. Four of the five remaining subjects are lying on the ground, safely cuffed. Only Oracle is putting up a little bit of resistance, trying to wrestle Sam off his back as he shackles him.  
"Subjects secured" Ed reports. "Situation contained."

The sun is dawning in the distance as Spike and I emerge from the building after having wrapped up the command post, and sit down on the steps in front of G.M.S. Technologies Headquarters, taking a short break.  
"That was good thinking, with the fire" Spike says approvingly.  
"Thanks" I reply, my heart beating a tad faster as I have to think of what he said to me, back then. 'I could kiss you right now…' his words echo in my mind and I smile. We sit on the steps to the building in silence for a while, appreciating the moment and watching the busy crowd of firefighters, paramedics and police officers. I take off my gloves and shake out the hair tie, combing my fingers through my hair, letting it fall loosely around my face as I let out a tired sigh. I turn to face Spike beside me. I softly smile at him as I notice he's been watching me, causing him to gently smile back. With his elbows sitting on his knees and his head resting inside his hands, his face turned towards me, he looks as tired and exhausted as I am feeling.  
"Hey, you know what?" he asks after a few moments. "I think I'd rather go to the movies tonight."  
He smiles at me for a moment and then straightens. Standing up from the steps, he offers me his hand. I take it, looking directly into his eyes as he helps me up, and maybe... maybe I am holding onto his hand a moment longer than necessary. With a silly smile upon my lips and a heart that's beating way too fast, Spike and I join up with the others again.


	9. Ten-thirty-three

First of all, thank you very much GinaDraven for you comment. It's nice to know you're enjoying my story.

I know, I know, I took my time posting this chapter, so, sorry everyone that I have kept you waiting. I was on holidays with my family and had quite a bit to catch up on at work afterwards... but here it is, and I'll promise to try and post weekly again from now on. Have fun and let me know what you think :)

Thia

* * *

**Chapter nine – Ten-thirty-three  
****Monday, 29th October, 2012**

I wake up in the morning even before my alarm clock goes off, waves of happiness and contentment flowing through my body. I have the feeling that today is going to be amazing! I slowly open my eyes and have a look at the alarm clock on my bedside table. I still have a few minutes before I need to get up today. Smiling, I turn around until I am lying on my back, arms crossed behind my head, thinking of Friday night.  
Spike and I have been going to the movies instead of the big party with Jules and Sam as planned. It was a very nice evening. We went to a bar afterwards, having some drinks, talking until early morning. It was just the two of us. It was brilliant.  
I smile and finally get up to put on my training clothes and go for my morning run. Today I'll take a longer route, I feel like bursting with energy.

"Good morning, sunshine" I greet Anne with a kiss on her cheek as I come back from my run. She is sitting at the counter on our kitchen, drinking coffee and reading a book. She's still dressed in the plain shirt and trainers she's always using as pyjamas.

"Hey babe" she mumbles, not looking up from her book. "Just gonna read this page."  
I nod and get myself some coffee. I sit down on top of the counter next to the fridge, sipping my coffee and dangling my legs, waiting for Anne to finish. A few moments later she turns the book over to rest on the pages and looks up, smiling at me.  
"Hey" she says again. "How was your tour?"  
"Great" I answer, feeling content and ready for the day, I just need to get into the showers sometime soon. "No work today?"  
"Got a later shift this week" she replies, sipping her coffee. Anne is working as a nurse at central hospital. "Have to be there at ten."  
"So" she grins, setting down her mug and looking directly into my eyes. "Tell me your news."  
"What news?" I ask, grinning with feign obliviousness. "I don't know what you mean." Of course I do know she wants to hear about Spike and our movie evening. I told her we would be going out on Friday, but Anne had been out with her friends the whole weekend, just coming back late yesterday.  
"Oh, don't try to fool me, darling. You know exactly what I mean" she softly scolds. "Come on, don't be shy!"  
"Well, there's not that much to tell, though. We went out to the movies…" I jump down from the counter and slowly walk over, leaning on the island counter in front of her. "Had some drinks afterwards…" I conspiratorially grin at her. "And talked the whole night" I concluded.  
"That's all?" she asks, slightly disappointed but smiling. "No holding hands at the cinema, no kissing in dark alleyways, no staying overnight?"  
"Oh, I wish" I sigh, still smiling. "I wish." I take a short break to sip my coffee, straightening again. The longer I know Spike, the more we hang out together, the more difficult it gets to hold on to my promise not to take action. "But it was amazing. He's such a funny guy."  
"Don't forget he's gorgeous" she winks at me. "And sexy."  
"That, too" I grin approvingly, emptying my coffee mug.  
"Well then, keep me up to date, will you?" she orders me and picks up her book again as I place the empty mug down on the counter.  
"Sure" I nod reassuringly, heading to the bathroom to finally have my shower. "You know that I will."

* * *

I lock my bike up against the bike rack at the station and enter the building, directly approaching Winnie at her desk.  
"Hey Winnie" I greet her, smiling cheerfully, and leaning at her desk to talk to her.  
"Nicki, hello" she smiles back at me. "How was your weekend?"  
"Great. Totally amazing, if you're asking me." I just can't hold in my happiness.  
"That's nice. Had a date?" she asks, interested.  
"Yeah, some like that" I smile back and wink at her as I see Sam coming up behind us. I'm not going to tell her about my evening with Spike, but where's the problem if she thinks I had a date yesterday, anyway? Besides, Spike and I were not on a date. We were out at the cinema as friends. Solely friends, I remind myself, beaming up at Sam as he approaches, greeting us.  
"So you had a date? Who's the lucky one?" he inquires as we enter the changing room together.  
"Who got lucky?" Spike asks as he sees us enter, having overheard Sams question while changing.  
"I'm not going to tell you guys anything!" I shake my head, approaching my locker and starting to change. "I'm a gentleman, you know?" I wink at Sam.  
"It wasn't Anne, was it?" Spike tries to pick my brains further, smiling a little as he starts to change.  
"Spikey, I won't say anything" I repeat, my mood suddenly changing. I am getting slightly annoyed now. I don't want them to ask further. I don't want them to jump to conclusions about me, but Spike goes on.  
"So it was Anne." He whistles. "About time, buddy, about time."  
"So who's Anne?" Sam inquires. "Don't let me out of the loop, guys."  
"Anne is his super-hot flatmate he knows since college. Always been telling me 'just friends', eh, buddy?" Spike jokes, but I've had enough.  
"Shut it, Spike!" I harshly tell him. "It's not about time, it's not Anne and it's absolutely none of your business!" I forcefully slam my locker shut and leave the room.  
"What the…?" I can hear him asking, before the door shuts, sounding confused and somewhat hurt. I sigh and rub my face with my hand, feeling somewhat disappointed and angry. And the day had started out so well…

* * *

We are patrolling today, and I am riding shotgun with Spike, as Greg had assigned us the western district, but none of us have been saying a word until now. I am sorry about snapping at Spike, I really am, but I can't do anything about it right now. Instead, I am looking out of the window, watching the streets, and avoiding any eye contact between us.  
"Hey, uh" Spike begins after about half an hour of silence between us. "You okay?" he asks.  
"Yeah. Sure" I answer shortly, not really in the mood for talking.  
"Yeah, sure" he sarcastically echoes and I look at him. He gazes at me, doubtfully, and disables his radio, signalling me to do the same. I comply, shutting the microphone of the headset off, so that nobody can overhear.  
"Something I said?" he asks.  
"Yeah, I mean no… I don't know." I am not really sure how I could explain to him that it hurt me seeing him so excited over me having a date with someone else. I know I acted as if, so technically I have no right to be mad, but... I don't even know exactly what happened myself. I don't know why I reacted like this. I am incredibly angry at myself for acting like a little girl.  
"Look, I'm sorry I snapped at you, ok? It's just…" I comb my fingers through my hair, causing the hair tie to lose its grip. "It's just none of your business." I finish, taking out the tie and trying to fix it, but some strands stay lose. I shrug, enabling my earpiece again and turn my head to continue looking out of the window, dismissing the subject. I can see his reflection in the glass, he keeps gazing at me every other minute, but he does not press the matter forward.

"Guys, we might have found some trouble" Sam reports over radio after another ten minutes of awkward silence between Spike and me. "Gunshots fired at a convenience store, East York. Sending you the coordinates. Subject has been fleeing the scene in a black Toyota. Plate number Romeo, five, Yankee, Bravo, Mike, two, seven. Jules and I are on the scene."  
"Copy that, Sam. Winnie…" Greg replies but is interrupted by her.  
"I'll set a search in motion and look up the owner of the car."  
"Thank you, Winnie. Everybody else, meet us at the convenience store. And Winnie, I may need the Command Truck."

As we arrive on the scene only a few minutes later, the others are already there. We get out of the car and join up with Greg, just as two paramedics transport an unconscious man out of the store and drive off to the hospital.  
"One subject, male, approximately twenty to twenty-five years of age, armed with a handgun" Greg begins briefing us as we approach. "Shot the owner of the store two times, emptied the register and fled the scene in a black Toyota Corolla. Victim's condition is critical. Jules is currently speaking to the eye witnesses, Sam and Ed are trying to figure out where he went."  
"Boss, the car's registered to a Jeremy Clarkson" Winnie reports over radio. "Sending you the address."  
"Thank you, Winnie. Any word on the whereabouts of the car?" Greg asks.  
"Nothing yet, boss."  
"Okay, keep me posted, and find out anything useful about Mr. Clarkson." He turns to us "You two check out the address. We'll send you pictures of the subject as soon as we have the security footage."  
"Copy" Spike and I echo and rush back to the car.  
"Boss, I've found some old records about Jeremy Clarkson" Winnie reports in. "Twenty-four years old, arrested a few times for robbery and possession of drugs. Been in jail two times, first time age seventeen for three and a half months. Second time age twenty, currently out on probation for good behaviour. Never missed an appointment with his probationer, recent drug tests were all clean."  
"Copy that, Winnie" Greg replies. "Give me a phone number of his probationer."  
We drive to the address in silence, listening to Winnie's summary. I still don't know what to say to make an apology to Spike, and I guess he's just fed up with my attitude today. I can totally understand that, especially since he really hasn't done anything wrong.

We park in front of a rundown apartment building and get out of the car again. We near the front door and I search for the right doorbell.  
"There it is. J. Clarkson, eighth floor" I tell Spike and we enter the building. The elevator greets us with a yellow out-of-service sign that looks as if it's been there for a long time now. We quickly rush up the stairs and approach Mr. Clarkson's apartment.  
"Police, SRU." Spike knocks on the door. "Please open the door, Sir. We have some questions." No one answers and Spike tries again. "Police Strategic Response Unit. Mr. Clarkson, please open the door!"  
Still no answer. We hold in to listen, but we cannot hear a sound from inside the apartment.  
"Uh… excuse me…" we hear a tiny voice behind us and quickly turn around. A teenage girl, about sixteen years of age stands in the doorway to a neighbouring apartment opposite from Mr. Clarkson's.  
"Are you… are you searching for Jerry?" she asks.  
"Yes, miss." Spike answers, stepping forward to the girl. "May I ask your name?"  
"It's Lisa. Lisa Stamford. I… I live here" she states, nervously. "Jerry is not home."  
"How do you know that, Lisa?" Spike inquires further.  
"I-I saw him leave earlier. Around… around noon. I met him downstairs as I came home" she answers, still appearing very nervous. Spike throws me a look and I know he thinks the same as I do. There's something she's not telling us.  
"How old exactly are you?" he inquires.  
"I… sixteen" she says, looking at her feet.  
"Lisa, how well do you know Jerry?" he asks again.  
"I… uh… well, he's my neighbour" she states and shrugs, shifting restlessly from one foot to another.  
"Lisa, would you mind if we went inside for a bit, so you can tell us about Jerry?" I ask her, hoping she would be more specific if we continue this conversation inside her apartment instead of the middle of the floor, where all other neighbours can listen.  
"Uh… no, I guess." She hesitates a bit, but steps out of the doorway to let us in. As we enter her apartment I am shocked upon how messy it is. On the floor, the cupboards, the tables, on every piece of furniture, old newspapers and magazines, clothes, dirty plates, old food, cans and bottles are lying around. I have to pause due to the smell and look at Spike. He obviously isn't very happy, either.  
"Uhm, Lisa… do you live here all on your own?" he asks, but the girl only shakes her head.  
"No. My mom is… she's still sleeping in her bedroom, she… she has a hard time getting up these days." The look on Lisa's eyes is one of great sadness, making me wonder what had happened to her and her mom. But she only shrugs the matter aside, clearly uncomfortable.  
"Thank you for letting us in, Lisa" I begin and unbag my PDA, showing her the picture of the subject that Greg had sent in the meantime. "Please have a look at this picture. Is this man Jeremy Clarkson, your neighbour?" I ask her as she takes a look.  
"…no… that's not him" she states, but hesitates a little bit too long for my taste.  
"Are you sure it's not him?" I ask. She shakes her head, not looking at me but staring at her feet instead.  
"Lisa, if you know anything, you've got to tell us. Jerry could be in serious trouble, and if you want to help him, you need to talk to us" I try again, watching her closely. She keeps staring at her feet, but I can see that she's chewing her lips uneasily. "Lisa…"  
"Yeah. Yeah, it's him" she finally responds.  
"Thank you for being honest, Lisa." She still stares at her feet, clearly wanting to get this over with, to get us out of her apartment. She's anxious. "Can you tell us anything else about Jeremy?"  
"He's… he's not a bad guy. He's brave and… and loving, and he cares. He's not a bad guy!" she lifts her head to look at me, tears showing up in her eyes. "He's not a bad guy…"  
"I believe you, Lisa. But Jeremy shot a man today. Can you tell me why he would do that?" I ask.  
"He's in that Gang… the brotherhood. He… he didn't want to join, but…" she hesitates again, chewing her lip. "…they threatened him."  
"They threatened him? How?" I inquire further. "Come on Lisa, we cannot help him if you don't talk to us." I place my hand on her shoulder, trying to reassure her.  
She takes a deep breath before she goes on, looking at her feet again. "We're involved. I… I love him and he loves me, but… but he's so much older than me and they found out about us. So they threatened to call the police on him and… and let me vanish. Blame it on him." Spike and I exchange looks. That's rough, but it did not surprise us all that much.  
"So, where did he go today? Do you know anything about that?" She shakes her head and this time I really believe her. "Thank you Lisa. Thank you very much for helping us out here."  
We say our goodbyes and turn to go.  
"Boss, you got that?" Spike asks.  
"Yeah. Try to get Wordy on the phone, Spike. He might now something about this brotherhood" Greg suggests.  
"Copy that, boss." Spike turns to me. "Let's have a look at his apartment nonetheless. Could be we find some hints inside."  
"Yeah" I agree and take out my lock picking tools to unlock his door. As we enter Jeremy Clarkson's apartment, we find the exact opposite than at Lisa's. Although it seems rather empty, the rooms are clean and tidy, every little thing seems to have a dedicated place. I shuffle through his things while listening to Spike calling Wordy on his phone.  
"Hey buddy, it's me, Spike. How ya doing?" he asks.  
"Yeah, yeah I know that, I know that… Listen buddy, I've got a little problem here. We're on a case, subject is a Jeremy Clarkson, shot a man in a drug store today, currently on the run. Sources say he recently joined a gang calling themselves the brotherhood. Happen to know some about them?"  
There's a short pause, then Spike goes on. "Yeah, East York, near Broadview?"  
While Spike listens to Wordy on the phone, I walk from room to room in Jeremy's apartment, listening to his occasional 'uh-huh's. Everything is neat and tidy, not one item just lying about.  
"Nice, thank you, buddy." Spike pauses again. "Course, that's on me. See you Friday!" he finally ends the call and turns to face me. "Boss, Wordy gave me a little intel about this brotherhood. They have a no-immigrants policy, pretty radical. Formed only recently, not much data available, though. Gang tattoo's a big calligraphic B on the neck. There's a handful of murder cases under investigation right now that hint to brotherhood involvement, all racial motivated. Gang first came to their attention through drug dealing and smaller robberies on liquor stores. Gang leader calls himself Jamie Jay. We've got one location in the neighbourhood that could be a meeting place, but it's not confirmed, yet. And Wordy sends his greetings, he said to meet us Friday at the Goose."  
"Copy that" Greg replies. "Send me the address of that place and go check it out. But be careful, guys, I don't want you to infiltrate a gang's hideout all on your own. Just have a small look and see if you can confirm the place."  
"Copy that, boss" Spike replies, and looks at me. "You found anything?" he asks.  
"Nothing." I shake my head. "All's neat and clean, no evidence for gang involvement."  
"All right, then. Let's move."

As we arrive at the address Wordy gave us, we see nothing but an old, abandoned warehouse.  
"No lights, no cars, no movement" I comment in hushed tones and he nods.  
"Yeah. But you see this?" He points to the cluster of antennas and satellite dishes on the rooftop at the northern end of the warehouse. "Bit too advanced for an abandoned warehouse that should've been empty since about ten years." He's right and I nod.  
"Let's go around the building, have a look at the back" I suggest and we get out of the car again. Carefully, we scout around the building, keeping our weapons ready, just in case. At the back of the warehouse, we see a deserted car standing.  
"Spike. What's the plate number again?" I ask him, nearing the car to have a closer look.  
"Romeo, five, Yankee, Bravo, Mike, two, seven."  
"Confirmed" I nod.  
"Boss, we found the car of the subject as well as advanced communications relays at the warehouse, but it seems abandoned from the outside. My guess is, the place is confirmed" he reports via radio.  
"Copy. Stand back, we're on our way" Greg orders.  
I open the trunk of the car to have a look inside and am shocked upon my findings.  
"Spike!" I whisper, taking my gloves off to take the vital signs of the crouched body lying in the trunk. He's still alive!  
"Boss, we need EMS, right now! We've found a young, male casualty inside the trunk of Jeremy's car, pulse rate is low, and he's unconscious" I call for help over radio.  
"Copy that, Nicki. ETA ten minutes. We're almost there" Greg replies.  
"Come on, let's get him out" I suggest and we are about to heave the boy out of the trunk as we hear the click of a weapon behind us, accompanied by a snarling voice.  
"I don't think so."  
My stomach drops as Spike and I exchange quick glances. We've been careless. We cautiously let the body slide back into the trunk and slowly turn around to face the unfamiliar voice. A large, muscular man grinningly points his handgun at us. Behind him, seven other gang members stand at the ready, equally seriously pointing their guns at us. We've been so distracted upon finding the boy in the trunk that neither of us noticed the gang sneaking up behind us.  
"Hands up, boys. You know how this works" the large man tells us and we cautiously comply.  
"Spike, Nick, what's going on?" we hear Greg inquiring over radio. "Where'd you go?"  
"Take it off!" the large man orders us harshly, pointing to our headsets. "Now!"  
"Okay, okay. Don't worry. We'll take the radio off. We'll take it off" Spike declares as we slowly begin taking our earpieces out. "Just, you and you're boys here don't do anything rash, now." He goes on and I know exactly that he tries to warn the others about our current state. "My name's Mike Scarlatti. Can I ask for your name, Sir?"  
"I hear you, Spike. We'll be there in a few. Just hang in there, guys!" I hear Greg calling as I take my earpiece out.  
"Shut up!" the man spits angrily. "Not. Another. Word!" We carefully put the devices on the ground in front of us, leaving them turned on, so that the others can still listen.  
"Now, weapons. On the ground!" the man orders and we slowly unsling our weapons and put them on the ground, next to the radio devices.  
"Okay. Okay. I'll put my weapons on the ground. See, I'll put them away, so don't worry. Don't worry, we'll do what you say" Spike tries again to speak to him. "Can you…"  
The man interrupts him, rushing forward, coming to a halt directly in front of Spike.  
"I said: Shut. Up!" he angrily hisses into his face. Spike nods at him, and worriedly gazes at me for only a split second.  
"Oh. I see" the man suddenly grins and takes one step back. Still looking at Spike, grinning evilly, he raises his weapon and points it at me, and the last thing I am aware of is Spike's frightened face as I slowly collapse onto the ground.

The first thing I notice as I slowly come to again, is a penetrating pain in my left side and shoulder. I try to open my eyes, but my head hurts too much. I groan and try to raise my hands to my head, but I cannot move them.  
"Nick… Nicki! Oh gods…" I hear Spike whispering "Oh thank gods, you're alive…"  
"What…" my voice sounds rough and weak. "What happened?" I ask him, finally being able to open my eyes and slowly sit up a bit.  
"He shot you. That damn sucker shot you and locked us up in here."  
I carefully take a look around. I am lying on the ground inside a small, dark room. Only a little light shines inside from dulled windows behind me. My left side hurts like hell, and I can see my shoulder and chest are totally covered in blood. My hands are bound behind my back. I carefully sit up and lean against the wall, panting from pain and exhaustion. My head aches tremendously and I feel dizzy. I am nauseous, probably due to the dizziness and the blood loss, and I close my eyes for a moment, trying to fight the waves of sickness that are about to overwhelm me. As soon as I have a grip on myself again, I open my eyes and look at Spike. He's sitting across from me, only a few feet away, shackled to some pipes on the wall, with his arms over his head.  
"Hey" I say and try a weak smile as my head spins slightly. I can see he has been roughed up badly. His lips are split, his nose is bloody and bruises start to show on the left side of his face. His left eye is half closed, badly swollen and bloody. "How are you doing?" I ask.  
He smiles at me weakly. "You've been shot repeatedly and ask how I am doing? Buddy, that's why I love you" he softly jokes with a coarse voice and shakes his head, smiling carefully. "I'm good. What about you?" He sounds as if he's been screaming a lot.  
"Dizzy" I simply say, closing my eyes once more, and leaning my head against the wall.  
"That's blood loss" Spike states, sounding slightly worried. "Don't worry, we'll be out in no time. The others are on their way. Just…" he hesitates. "Just stay awake, okay? Just… stay with me."  
"Uh-huh" I open my eyes again, still letting my head rest against the wall. "How long 've we been in here?" I feel heavy and tired. So tired. I fight to stay awake, but it's painstaking to keep my eyes open.  
"Uhm. Not sure. Not that long, a few minutes…" he hesitates. "…I punched him after he shot you. I guess I lost control." He sighs. "They beat me up and locked me up in here, hands bound and all. And you lying over there, bleeding." He halts and looks at me intensely. "I didn't even know if you're still breathing…" his voice fails and he averts his gaze to stare at the door. I let my gaze slide up to his hands, his wrists are bloody and torn open. He must have tried to free himself forcefully.  
"You're an idiot" I whisper softly. My eyes are way too heavy now. I can't hold them open. I can't…  
"Thank you, Spike." And the world goes black again.

"Nick. Hey, Nicki. Can you hear me?" Yes. Yes, I can hear you. I can hear you, I try to answer that strangely familiar voice, that's cutting through the black, but I cannot form a sound. Instead only a groan emerges.  
"He's coming to again" the voice states. "Nicki, hey." I slowly open my eyes and try to focus. At first my view is only blurred, but it gets clearer as I blink my eyes.  
"Hey" I croak weakly at Jules, who is kneeling above me, caring for my wound, trying to apply a tourniquet. "'S good t' see you." I try to smile, but my head spins and I'm getting nauseous again. "I don't feel so good" I comment, closing my eyes again, once more trying to fight back the waves of sickness that threaten to overwhelm me.  
"I know Nicki. I know. We'll get you to the hospital, soon." She smiles at me reassuringly. "Everything will be okay. You're gonna be fine, you hear me?"  
"Where's Spike?" I ask her, opening my eyes again and trying to turn my head around to search for him, but I cannot find him.  
"He's okay. He's outside."  
"No, you listen to ME!" I suddenly hear Spike yelling. He sounds angry, devastated and very upset. "You think you can get out of here? You still think I let you get away with this? You know what? Try me."  
"Spike. It's okay" I hear Greg trying to interrupt him, but Spike goes on.  
"Even if, by some miracle, you get away... I don't care where you try to hide. I will find you… Whatever I have to do, I will do. I will never forget you, not after what you did to my friend!"  
"It's enough, Spike!" Greg orders again.  
"What, what now you wanna shoot me?" Spike ignores the order, now sounding threateningly dangerous. "Go ahead, go ahead… Go ahead. Shoot me!"  
I hear gunfire. "Spike!" Panic-stricken I try to get up, but Jules is holding me down and I am too weak to fight her. "Spike…" I whisper in panic as the world around me blurs again, dragging me down into the soft, mute blackness once more.

* * *

I wake up to the sounds of frequent beeping and slowly open my eyes to bright, white surroundings.  
"Ugh" I groan and close my eyes again, a sharp pain jabbing through my arm as I reflexively try to raise my hands to my head.  
"Hey, hey, easy buddy, easy" a soft voice beside me whispers and I can feel someone coming closer to my side, cautiously taking my hand in his. I carefully open my eyes again and am greeted by Spike's smiling face directly beside me.  
"Hey" I weakly smile up at him, feeling incredibly relieved to see him. My heart starts beating double time as I look into his eyes and see a caring warmth. He lets go of my hand and helps me sitting up a little bit, handing me a glass of water. I feel way better after taking a few sips.  
I quickly survey the situation. I am obviously lying in a hospital bed. My head hurts a bit, but is no longer spinning. My left shoulder is aching and I cannot move my left arm without causing my shoulder to scream in agony. My chest and left side are in pain and I cannot take a deep breath without causing more pain. Spike is half standing, half leaning beside my bed, softly smiling at me. He has a blackened eye, his face is badly bruised, his lips are split and both of his wrists are bandaged, but he is smiling nonetheless.  
"You look like crap" I tell him with a weak smile and he laughs, nodding, as I watch him sliding the chair closer to my bedside and sitting down, leaning both of his elbows onto the mattress.  
"Yeah, I guess… We both do" he grins, as I carefully raise my hand again and he takes it into both of his, gently holding it, softly brushing his thumb over the back of my hand, sending shivers through my body. "But it's always nice to get a compliment."  
"How you doing?" I ask him.  
"I'm good. Nothing broken, just a bit bruised."  
"And how am I doing?" I look at him and he softly smiles.  
"You've been shot several times. Some bullets hit the vest, you've got your chest covered in bruises. Two shots in the shoulder, Bullets went right through, though. Docs say no nerve damage, but you'll need a bit time to heal. A small head wound from the fall, but luckily no concussion" he explains. "Try not to move that arm."  
"How long have I been out?"  
"About fourteen hours" he replies and I suddenly am aware of how tired he looks.  
"You been here the whole time?" I ask, astonished.  
"Well, yeah." He sounds a bit embarrassed. "Wanted to be there when you wake up." He softly smiles at me and the warm feeling spreads from my stomach through my whole body.  
"Will you be there tomorrow?" I quietly want to know, letting my gaze drop from his face to our intertwined hands.  
"Every day" he softly replies. I smile, and suddenly remember something else and look up again.  
"I don't care where you try to hide? I will find you? I will never forget you?" I ask, grinning weakly as he laughs, shaking his head.  
"You heard me, huh?" he smiles and looks down. "Yeah, yeah, I know. That was a bit cheesy, I guess." My heart skips another beat as he looks at me again, still smiling, and I suddenly realise something. This is not a crush anymore. This is love.  
"Thank you" I tell him wholeheartedly, leaning back in the cushions and slowly closing my eyes again, drifting back to sleep.


	10. Getting better

**Chapter ten – Getting better  
Saturday, 3rd November, 2012**

I carefully place my empty travel bag on top of the hospital bed and slowly start on packing. It is a Saturday morning and today I am finally able to get the hell out of here. Even though Spike and the others have been visiting me frequently, and even though Anne is working as a nurse in this very hospital and has been coming in every now and then, I yearn for my own four walls again. Hospitals are boring. I only had to stay a few days, as the wound in my shoulder has not been severe and could be fixed in a simple operation. I still have to rest my arm for a while, though, until the stitches can be removed, and I'll have to do some rehabilitation gymnastics and muscle training afterwards to have it function at one hundred percent again.  
"Hey, honey" Anne opens the door and sticks her head in. "How are you doing?" She enters the room and closes the door again, leaning her back against it, smiling at me happily. She looks good in her uniform. But then, she always looks good, regardless of what she's wearing. "Happy to get out?"  
"Oh god, yes" I sigh, looking at her. "I can hardly wait."  
"Can I help you pack up?" she asks, but I shake my head.  
"Nah, 's not much" I decline and walk up to the small wardrobe in the corner of the room to get the rest of my clothes. I am already fully dressed in jeans and t-shirt, only my leather jacket is lying over the backrest of a chair.  
"Guess I'm done" I tell Anne and take a last look around to see if I have left anything lying about. She walks up from the door, taking my jacket and helping me putting it on, carefully placing it over the injured arm in its sling.  
"Thank you, love" I tell her, smiling, and grab my bag just as the door opens again and Spike enters the room, smiling brightly.  
"Hey!" he exclaims, cheerfully grinning at me. "Taxi's here." He comes over and takes my bag out of my hands, throwing it onto his shoulders. "Ready to take off?"  
"Thanks for picking me up" I nod and smile at him, patting his shoulder with my good hand as he turns to hold the door open for me. "Let's go." I wave my goodbye to Anne, and she winks, smiling conspiratorially.

We arrive at my apartment and Spike carries my bag into my bedroom, placing it onto my bed while I carefully take off my shoes and jacket.  
"Okay." He turns to look at me. "I have a suggestion. You go and sit down on the couch, read or watch TV or whatever, and I'll prepare some lunch" he smiles at me caringly and my heart skips a beat. "What do you say?" I smile at him and nod, not being able to say no to him when he looks at me like that.  
"That would be great" I gladly accept his offer and walk back into the living room, carefully sitting down on my favourite spot on the sofa, cross-legged, as always. Exhausted I lean back into the cushions, letting my head rest on the backrest, closing my eyes. Finally home.

"Hey. Wake up." I hear Spike softly calling out to me and slowly open my eyes. I fell asleep.  
"What time is it?" I ask him as I rub my face with my right hand, slightly disoriented, and comb my hair back behind my ears.  
"Just after two" he replies, sitting down next to me. "You've been asleep for about two hours. I figured it would be time…" He looks at me. "Uhm. I made sandwiches, you want some?" He hands me a plate and I notice my stomach growling.  
"Thanks" I smile and he beams back at me. I turn to face the TV, Spike must have turned it on while I was asleep. "What are we watching?" I ask and take a bite.  
"Mh, some sitcom about a bunch of nerds. Pretty funny" he answers, leaning back in the cushions, and we watch in silence for a while.  
"You know, I never said sorry" I tell him after a few minutes of silence, still looking at the TV. He turns his head to look at me.  
"What for?" he asks and I turn to face him.  
"For yelling at you." He looks a bit confused now, he does not really know what I am speaking about, but this matter had been resting on my soul for the last couple of days. "For being angry at you, for joking about my so called date" I finally answer and he grins as he realizes what I am speaking about.  
"You worry about that?" he laughs. "Geez, Nicki, you're so sweet sometimes." My heart starts beating faster upon his words and my face becomes hot. I quickly turn my head away to hide my blush. I've got the feeling he doesn't even notice the things he says.  
"So tell me. Why have you been angry?" he inquires, looking at me with earnest interest.  
"Because there wasn't a date" I admit. "You totally took that out of its context." I sigh and casually play with some strands of my hair. "You know, I was talking to Winnie about… nothing, really. I don't know any more why I got so angry 'bout your jokes. I just want you to know that I am sorry."  
"Okay" he nods after a moment. "Okay, don't worry."

"Spike?" I ask. We've been sitting on my couch for a few hours now, talking and watching TV. "I would like to get some fresh air. Care to accompany me?" I miss riding my bike. I've almost been going crazy these last few days. I need to at least go outside for a walk.  
"Sure" he gets up and offers me his hand to help me. I smile as I take it and let him help me stand.  
"You don't have to be so overcautious, I'm fine" I grin at him.  
"Can't help it" he smiles back and winks, going to get my jacket. I sigh, smilingly watching him vanish inside my bedroom. I really like it when he's around, when he cares for me. I almost fear I like him being around way too much…  
"Okay, let's go" Spike calls, emerging from my bedroom with my jacket in hand, interrupting my thoughts with his smile.  
"Thank you" I tell him as I put it on with his help. "You know, I have the feeling I rarely say anything other to you than thank you, these days" I joke and grin at him.  
"Yeah, well. There's much to thank me for, I guess" he winks and turns to open the door for me. "I'm being the perfect gentleman!" he laughs as he compliments me through the door with a courteous bow. We go down in the elevator and leave the building, taking a stroll through the neighbourhood. The sun is setting and the wind is chilly, but I feel better just by being outside. Spike is telling stories from work as we walk through the streets, totally forgetting the time.  
"So, how long do you have to wait until you're ready for work again?" he asks.  
"About three to four weeks. Nerves and tendons in my arm have not been damaged, so I'll just have to rest until the strings will be drawn next week. After that I can slowly start to put weight on it again" I explain what the doctors told me. "It was not that bad at all, the worst was the blood loss." I glance at him from the side. "You're face looks better, too. What about your wrists?"  
He holds his hands out in front of him, showing his still lightly bandaged wrists. "Not bad. There'll be scars, but all's mostly healed now" he smiles, stowing his hands back in his pockets.  
"So, uhm" he turns to face me. "Wanna grab something to eat? I'll buy."  
"Sounds good" I smile at him. "But no way you're buying. It's the least I can do, after all you've done for me today. And the whole last week for that matter."  
"All right. Okay, I won't object to that." He thinks a moment. "Where d'ya wanna go?"

"That boy, from the trunk, Jeremy. He didn't make it" Spike is telling me, looking at his bandaged wrists while he speaks. We are sitting inside a small diner near my apartment, having had some burgers for dinner. "After that bastard Jamie shot you, I was – I was so mad, so enraged, you know? Tried to get to you, to check on you, but they didn't let me. I punched him in his ugly face. Fucker had it coming. And then they beat me up for it and locked us away in that room." He halts, remembering the events of that day.  
"I screamed for you, and… and for them for what felt like an eternity" he goes on after a little pause. "Until my voice was almost gone, you know? I yanked at those pipes, trying my best to get out of those damned shackles, right. I… I did not even know if you're still alive, okay? I just lost it. And as finally someone came, they just laughed and kicked me in the face for my effort. I stayed silent after that. Just waited for the others to show up and get us the hell out." He smiles at me. "I was so worried about you, you know?" he caringly whispers, averting his gaze again. "I was so worried."  
"I'm sorry. I really am" I tell him, but he shakes his head.  
"Then you came to and my heart was jumping in circles, I tell you, buddy. Only a few minutes after, I heard sounds from outside and knew the others finally found us. I yelled for them and they got me out of my shackles and took care of you. When I got out of that room, Greg was talking to that fucker Jamie, the one who shot you. He held one of his accomplices hostage, tried to negotiate his way out, and I… well, I was angry, right? I… I may have screamed a bit." He grins again, nodding.  
"I know, I heard" I smile at him.  
"He wanted to shoot me, but Ed tackled him down before he could. The rest of the gang was taken into custody" Spike concludes.  
"Spike, I'm sorry, okay? I should not have–" I try to apologize but he interrupts me.  
"Seriously, Nick. Shut up" he states and sincerely looks at me, and I just can't help but laugh.

I pay and we walk back to my apartment in comfortable silence. I enjoy the chilly evening breeze and the darkness of the night. We are just about to arrive at the apartment building as my cellphone rings. I take it out and answer the call.  
"Yeah?"  
_"Hey, it's me"_ a cheerful Anne greets me.  
"Annie, what's up?" I ask, wondering. Normally she should've been home by now.  
_"Listen, I have to cover for a colleague tonight. I'll be home tomorrow morning, I'm sorry, darling…"_ she apologizes.  
"It's okay, I'll manage." Granted, I'm a little bit disappointed, but it's okay.  
_"Hey, uhm" _she wants to know. _"Spike still with you?"  
_"Yeah, why?" I ask and look at him questioningly.  
_"Lemme speak to him"_ she demands and I comply, handing Spike the phone.  
"She wants to speak to you…" Spike takes the phone, looking a little bewildered and answers.  
"Anne? Hi, how're you doing?" Spike asks and pauses as Anne speaks. "Uh-huh." He pauses again. "Yeah, sure, I can do that. No work this weekend, anyway." He grins at me and I really, really want to know what they talk about. She can't be asking him out on a date, or can she?!  
"Gladly" Spike states, smiling brightly. "Okay then, see you tomorrow, bye-bye!" He hangs up and hands me the phone back. "She asks me… No. She _commands_ me to stay overnight and care for you." He grins at me. "I can't say no to a beautiful lady in distress, so… you've got no other choice that bear with me." He shrugs and I laugh heartily.  
"I can live with that" I grin at him as we walk inside.

We decide to make popcorn, hang out on the couch and watch some DVDs. We are sitting directly next to each other on the couch, the popcorn bowl standing on top of my lap, and both of us facing the TV. Our shoulders touch as we both lean back into the cushions, and I let myself slightly lean against Spike, causing me to feel a constant warm sensation flowing through my body. Right now, I am happy. Right now, I don't want anything to change, anything at all.  
As the closing credits of the movie we watched appear on the screen, Spike gets up.  
"Which one now?" he asks, walking over to the DVD shelf next to the TV and scanning our repertoire.  
"I don't know, part two?" I suggest and he searches for the right DVD, places it in the player and comes back to the sofa, sitting next to me again. I watch him, thoughtfully, his face is still covered in bruises, his eye still blackened. He notices my look and turns around a bit to face me.  
"What's up?"  
"Does it hurt?" I ask.  
"What?" he wants to know.  
"Your eye. Does it still hurt?" I softly ask again and sit up a bit, placing the bowl of popcorn onto the table before facing him directly. I swallow nervously, and ever so slowly raise my right hand to touch his bruises. My heart starts to beat like crazy as my fingertips softly slide over his beaten skin, my eyes gently following their movement. My fingertips reach his bruised eye and I halt upon realizing the care in his look, the warmth in his eyes. His lips are formed to a small but loving smile and I nervously return his intense gaze.  
"Sometimes a bit" he breathes softly, his voice sounding a little bit unstable now. Is he nervous? He sounds nervous. I suddenly have a lump in my throat, my face feels hot, and my heart is racing, jumping against my chest.  
"I… uh…" my voice is no more than a whisper as I try to say something, anything, but my mind becomes completely blank as Spike slowly raises his own hand, still looking me in the eyes, touching my cheek, and combing some lose strands of hair behind my ear. As he lets his hand come to rest at the nape of my neck, carefully weaving his fingers into my hair, I close my eyes. I feel like I am about to burst with emotions. I just can't stand it anymore, this is too intense. I feel him coming closer, feel his hand carefully applying pressure to my neck, and slowly pulling me against him. As his lips softly touch mine, I feel fireworks, nothing but fireworks. My mind is totally blank, my heart races and jumps and my face is as hot as it can get. He's kissing me. Spike is kissing me. _Spike_ is kissing _me_! It lasts no longer than a few seconds before he withdraws, leaning his forehead against mine, his hand still resting upon my neck.  
"I'm sorry" he whispers. "I just wanted to do that for a long time…" I straighten a bit and open my eyes to look at him. He… what?! His face is as flushed as my own feels, but he is smiling. Then he suddenly retracts his hand from my neck, rubbing it over his face, looking embarrassed.  
"Sorry" he repeats. "I… uh... I shouldn't have done that."  
"Don't" I softly say and he looks at me. "Don't you dare apologize…" I lean forward, carefully grabbing his neck and pulling him closer to me until our lips finally meet again. This time, the kiss is much rougher than before. He grabs my head with both of his hands, combing his fingers into my hair, pulling me close. I close my eyes again and let myself sink into the kiss, slightly parting my lips. I am greeted by a soft throaty moan and the tip of Spike's tongue, and my heart skips another beat at the first contact. This is so perfect. I feel his left hand sliding down from my neck, coming to a halt on my back, supporting me as he softly pushes me down on the sofa, never interrupting our kiss, until I am finally resting on my back.  
"Ouch" I flinch as a sharp pain throbs through my shoulder, ending the kiss.  
"Sorry" Spike apologizes instantly, quickly sitting up, looking guilty. "Sorry, I didn't want that, I…" but I interrupt him with just another kiss, pulling him down again, capturing his lips with my own. I couldn't care less about my shoulder right now.

* * *

I wake up to the soft familiar sound of our front door clapping and slowly open my eyes, feeling slightly disoriented. Why have I been sleeping on the couch…? Slowly I remember what has been happening the last evening. 'I just wanted to do that for a long time…' Spikes voice echoes through my mind and I smile, my heart starts racing again, just at the thought of it. Spike kissed me. We kissed. We made out on the couch. We kissed and cuddled and finally fell asleep holding each other close. I sit up a bit, wondering. Where is he? Was it too much? Did he just go?  
I get up, combing my fingers through my hair and take a look at the clock on the wall. Half past eight in the morning. Still early. I wander to my bedroom, the door is open, but nobody is inside. I walk up to the bathroom and knock on the door before entering, just in case, but its empty. I quickly check the second bathroom, nothing. Was I too demanding? Should I have better said no? Should I have stopped? My stomach drops. One last chance. I approach Anne's bedroom and knock on the door. No answer. Of course, she took the nightshift at work last night, but she should be home within the next hour or so. I open the door to her room just a bit to check, but it is as empty as the rest of the apartment. He's gone. I rub my face with my right hand and comb my fingers through my hair in a desperate gesture. Shit. I made a mistake. Feeling queasy, I walk into the kitchen. I am wide awake now, I could as well just make coffee. Starting the coffeemaker, I see Spike's cellphone lying on top of the counter. He has to come back to get it at least.

Getting ready for the day takes longer than I am used to, due to my injuries, but I manage. I am just about to carefully dressing a t-shirt over my shoulder as I hear someone coming in again. My look darts to the alarm clock on my bedside table, just after eight.  
"Hey, you're awake." I dart around, startled, and see Spike standing inside my doorway, smiling at me.  
"Need help?" he asks and comes inside, taking the t-shirt out of my hands and carefully helps me dress. My heart beats double time again, just because he's here. He did not run away. He was just out for a few moments and came back. I smile at him and let him help me. I am so relieved.  
He holds me in his arms a moment longer than necessary, after fixing my shirt, and I shift to face him directly, nervously smiling at him. And then he lets go again.  
"I bought some things for breakfast."

We walk to the kitchen and Spike prepares breakfast. Coffee is already done, but we decided to wait for Anne, she should be here soon. I sit down on a bar stool at the island counter, watching him work.  
"You know, we need to speak about this" I begin after a few minutes of silence, suddenly feeling very nervous again and playing with my hair. He halts and slowly turns around, leaning his back on the kitchen counter, looking at me seriously.  
"I know" he simply states and we both are silent for some weird moments, neither of us knowing what to say and where to begin, until we hear the door opening and Anne coming home.  
"Hey guys" she smiles at us and comes over, greeting both of us with a small hug and a kiss on the cheek. She looks tired but cheerful.  
"Welcome home, Annie. You want some breakfast?" I ask her, pointing to the already set up counter.  
"That would be lovely" she replies, smiling at us. "Just lemme get rid of my uniform, I'll be back in a few." She turns and walks into her room.  
"We'll speak later" I tell Spike as Anne is out of range and he nods, preparing three mugs of coffee for us and placing them in front of me.  
"So" Anne joins us again and takes a seat next to me. "What did you guys do without me yesterday? Went to bed early, or not being to bed at all?" she smirks and looks at us. "I mean, you're awake pretty darn early on a Sunday."  
"Nah. We made popcorn and watched some movies. Nothing out of the usual" Spike reports, staring at his plate with a light blush on his face.  
"Yeah. Absolutely nothing" I agree, slightly sarcastic, and take a sip of my coffee. I don't need to look at Anne to know that she wonders. I know she will use the first change she gets to ask further about why he acted so strange. And of course I really, really want to speak to her. But I cannot chat about it as long as Spike is sitting right next to us.  
"Nick?" she suddenly places a hand on my shoulder, startling me out of my thoughts.  
"What?"  
"I just wanted to know how you feel… Honey, are you okay? You look… weary" she looks at me slightly worried.  
"Yeah, no, no I'm okay. Really. Just a bit tired, I guess" I reply, taking another sip of my coffee.

We finish breakfast, chatting about bits and pieces, this and that, until finally, Spike puts his mug down.  
"I'm going to get a shower, if that's okay with you" he smiles at us and stands up.  
"Of course, Spikey, you know where the towels are?" Anne asks as he nears the bathroom.  
"I remember from last time" he calls back. "Thanks!" and locks the door after him.  
As soon as we hear the door click, Anne turns around in her bar stool, looking at me intensely.  
"Shoot" she orders sternly and I have to grin.  
"I don't know what you're-" I try to conceal my grin by taking another sip from my coffee, but she interrupts me, clearly not being in the mood for my games.  
"Oh no boy, you know exactly what I mean" she grins at me. "Tell me." She softly pinches my right shoulder. "Tell me, I said. Or I'm gonna hurt you!" she jokes and pinches again, harder this time and I laugh.  
"Okay, okay, don't… Don't! I'll talk" I look at her, trying to shield me with my good hand. But I am not able to conceal my wide grin anymore, and she knows what happened, just from looking at me.  
"Oh, gods, finally!" she exclaims, excitedly clapping her hands.  
"Shush" I try to silence her a bit, throwing a short look towards the bathroom door. Spike doesn't have to know that I talk about him.  
"Tell me! Tell me everything!" she whispers, smiling brightly up at me.  
"I don't know" I begin. "We lounged on the couch, watching movies and talked and- and somehow ended up kissing" I grin, my heart beating faster just at the thought of last night. "He kissed me first" I state, grinning stupidly into my coffee mug.  
"Geez, that's so sweet! Congratulations, honey!" she looks at me. "Are you two…?"  
"No" I shake my head, looking down at my coffee. "We just wanted to talk about it as you came home. We had no chance, yet." I look at her and grin stupidly again. "We slept on the couch."  
"Oooh" she states and carefully places her arms around my shoulders, pulling me into a soft hug. "I'm so happy, honey!" I nod and let my forehead rest on her shoulder for a moment. A sinking feeling spreads in my stomach as I think of the upcoming talk.  
"What are you talking about?" Spike suddenly asks and we move apart again. "Something happened?" He walks over to us, working a towel through his hair to dry it off, looking curious and incredibly cute.  
"Maybe" Anne grins conspiratorially at him and lets go of me. "But I'm not going to tell you!" she winks and gets up. "I'm going to bed now, laters!"  
"Sleep well" I call after her as she vanishes behind her bedroom door. We're all alone again. I turn my head to look at Spike, still slightly grinning.  
"You told her?" Spike asks, leaning his back on the kitchen counter again, sounding somewhat stern, and my stomach drops a bit. I shake my head at him, looking down into my coffee mug.  
"There was no need to, she's my best friend. She just asked if we've finally been kissing."  
"Finally?" Spike smirks and my face begins feeling hot again.  
"I… uhm. I may have told her I'd like to… some time ago…" I admit and carefully dart a glance at him. He's grinning sheepishly, sipping his coffee. He's obviously not angry, and I feel relieved.  
"I'm flattered" he mumbles, grinning, before he takes another sip of his coffee and looks at me seriously. "So. What are we gonna do?" he wants to know. Back to square one.  
"What do you _want_ to do?" I ask back and look up, suddenly feeling nervous again. I don't know what I should do when he declines me now. I don't know how I gonna react. I mean, it's nothing I couldn't take, it's just… I know what I want… I want it. I want him. I want all of it, so bad. So bad… I try to organize my thoughts, but I fail. He is quiet far too long now. I start to feel restless, nervous, and get up, picking up our breakfast plates and carrying them over to the sink. I put the plates down and halt a moment, resting both of my hands on the sink and looking down, thinking. All of a sudden I feel his arms around me, and his lips softly pressing on my neck, kissing and carefully nibbling at my skin. My heart starts to beat faster and I slowly turn around in his hug, facing him. He rests his hands on my hips as I place my good arm around his shoulders and gently play with the hair in his neck. He smiles at me and then, just like that, he leans in and finally kisses me again, softly, on the lips. My heart races and my face feels hot once more, as I return the kiss, equally careful. He withdraws after only a few seconds, looking at me with love in his eyes.  
"This is what I want to do" he calmly states, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against mine. I, too, close my eyes, feeling happier than I have in weeks.  
"I want that, too" I whisper, not being able to raise my voice any more. "I wanted that for so long…" I lean in for another kiss and Spike gladly complies, pulling me even closer in his arms, resting his hands on my back. I let the tip of my tongue slip through his slightly parted lips and am rewarded by a soft moan. We break apart after a while and look at each other, still holding one another close.  
"We can't let anyone know" he states after a few moments of silence, his voice sounding regretful. "We can't make it official."  
"I know" I softly nod. "I know."  
"Will you always blush this much, when I kiss you?" he asks, smirking as he gently brushes my cheeks with his hand, still holding me in his arms, and I feel my face getting even hotter.  
"I don't know. We'll see, won't we?" I ask him, suddenly feeling nervous all over again.  
"We will" he simply agrees, moving in to capture my lips again for just another passionate kiss.


End file.
